Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Raises Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,835 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,321,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 1248 Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Family CFO Inc acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $160.52 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.15, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.77. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $172.86 and a 200 day moving average of $154.15.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. TD Cowen cut their price target on Blackstone from $215.00 to $208.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Blackstone from $194.00 to $188.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

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.