BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Has $16.95 Million Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 60.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,896 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 51,795 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $16,948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $157.61 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $88.59 and a 52 week high of $161.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $112.64 billion, a PE ratio of 55.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $140.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $129.86.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its 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 for 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%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.93 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.82 per share. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 115.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Blackstone from $145.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America raised their target price on Blackstone from $130.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $126.00 to $141.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $144.00 to $164.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.78.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $14,323,104.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 921,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,305,632. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 35,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $56,567,311.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.