BankPlus Trust Department Increases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

BankPlus Trust Department raised its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,445 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,401 shares during the period. Blackstone accounts for about 0.9% of BankPlus Trust Department’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. BankPlus Trust Department’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $151,524,000. Amundi grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective 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. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $176.83.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.2%

BX opened at $164.83 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. The business has a 50-day moving average of $173.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $154.03. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $77,814,720.56. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Company 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.