IFM Investors Pty Ltd Has $17.91 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

IFM Investors Pty Ltd decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 128,120 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 652 shares during the period. IFM Investors Pty Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $17,909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position 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 buying an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position 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 buying an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised 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 in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 19.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,109,020 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $708,477,000 after buying an additional 678,111 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. 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 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 report on Friday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 222 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the purchase, the director owned 38,753 shares in the company, valued at $6,599,248.37. This trade represents a 0.58% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $173.28 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $168.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.05. The stock has a market cap of $127.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current 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 paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

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.