KBC Group NV Acquires 7,658 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 120,257 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 7,658 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $17,988,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 324 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $146.92 per share, for a total transaction of $47,602.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 39,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,741,192.84. The trade was a 0.84% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders purchased 2,565,543 shares of company stock worth $69,050,139 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 24th. HSBC dropped their price target on Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.74.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $139.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $102.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.84, 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $163.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $157.54. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a $1.29 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

Blackstone Company Profile

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.