Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Invests $140,000 in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 998 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $140,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,195,551 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $895,817,000 after buying an additional 144,926 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 19.8% in the fourth 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 worth $708,477,000 after buying an additional 678,111 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the purchase, the director owned 38,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,599,248.37. The trade was a 0.58% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of Blackstone 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 $9,261,325.36. This represents a 14.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $172.10 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $164.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $149.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $126.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.71.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Barclays boosted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, July 19th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Company 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.