Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Raises Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 147,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,132 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $22,002,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. 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 buying an additional 70,118,948 shares in 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. One research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $183.68.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $161.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $155.27.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.