OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,494 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $865,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ares Financial Consulting LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Addison Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Strive Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Palladiem LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total transaction of $1,379,685.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 64,448 shares in the company, valued at $9,359,783.04. This represents a 12.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 765,111 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,001.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,882,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $206,039,270.30. The trade was a 10.75% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 1,339,180 shares of company stock worth $35,062,433 and have sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on BX. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Blackstone from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, June 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of BX stock opened at $143.56 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.57. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The company has a market capitalization of $107.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.12, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were issued a $1.29 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 115.44%.

Blackstone Company Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.