M&G PLC Cuts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

M&G PLC lowered its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 52,161 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,932 shares during the period. M&G PLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $7,824,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Amundi increased its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.5%

BX opened at $144.29 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $106.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.23, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director James Breyer bought 13,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $143.86 per share, with a total value of $1,999,654.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 68,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,912,817.16. This trade represents a 25.27% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 2,565,141 shares of company stock worth $68,991,351. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BX. Bank of America cut their target price on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.