Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stake Lifted by Ieq Capital LLC

Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 65.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 229,888 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 90,698 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $28,460,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,766,875,000 after buying an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $290,514,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 19,048.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $247,423,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873,573 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,442,227,000 after purchasing an additional 1,290,324 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.74, for a total transaction of $4,610,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 429,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total transaction of $14,323,104.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares in the company, valued at $113,305,632. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $159.66 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $88.59 and a 1 year high of $160.24. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $139.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $129.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $114.10 billion, a PE ratio of 56.42, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The asset manager reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.99 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.58 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.43% and a net margin of 19.35%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were given a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $3.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 115.90%.

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.