AIA Group Ltd Has $5.67 Million Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

AIA Group Ltd boosted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 40,561 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,332 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Vision Financial Markets LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $36,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JMP Securities lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $170.12.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total value of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 808,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. The trade was a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of BX opened at $168.93 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $123.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $155.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.04.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

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.