Russell Investments Group Ltd. Boosts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 373,390 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,171 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $52,148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,209,707,000 after buying an additional 681,512 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,195,551 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $895,817,000 after buying an additional 144,926 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in 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 worth $581,886,000 after purchasing an additional 117,724 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $176.58 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $130.16 billion, a PE ratio of 47.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.71. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $157.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $150.27.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Citigroup reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Saturday, July 19th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $170.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $167.36, for a total transaction of $16,736,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 808,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,353,571.52. This trade represents a 11.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total value of $1,597,718.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 54,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. This trade represents a 14.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.