Hsbc Holdings PLC Acquires 68,362 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,810,719 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,362 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $251,804,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 14,608.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,322,598 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $184,873,000 after acquiring an additional 1,313,606 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $151,524,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in Blackstone by 136.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,270,233 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $177,544,000 after purchasing an additional 734,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $170.29 per share, with a total value of $37,804.38. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 38,753 shares in the company, valued at $6,599,248.37. This trade represents 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 at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 1,189,806 shares of company stock valued at $30,046,627 and sold 16,850,134 shares valued at $131,641,986. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $170.12.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $169.13 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $159.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $124.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.47, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.71.

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. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 110.75%.

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.