Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Cooper Financial Group

Cooper Financial Group lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,079,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd 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. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.22 per share, with a total value of $29,999,997.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,178,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $105,388,604.62. The trade was a 39.79% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $168.22 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market cap of $124.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.22, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a 50-day moving average of $174.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $153.48. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.71.

Blackstone 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.