Machina Capital S.A.S. Buys New Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $256,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Putney Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings I. L.P. Blackstone purchased 1,189,532 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.22 per share, for a total transaction of $29,999,997.04. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 4,178,771 shares in the company, valued at $105,388,604.62. This trade represents a 39.79% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,053,344.11. This represents a 0.64% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 2,849,769 shares of company stock valued at $54,932,307 in the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Saturday, July 19th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.71.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of BX opened at $177.96 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.84, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a 50-day moving average of $149.10 and a 200 day moving average of $150.68.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm 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%. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th will be issued a $1.03 dividend. 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 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 112.05%.

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.