Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Acquired by Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 17.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,244 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,240 shares during the period. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,233,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 34.6% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 132,333.3% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 3,973 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $555,000 after purchasing an additional 3,970 shares in the last quarter. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 9.5% in the first quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 3,576 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $500,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 4.7% in the first quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 76,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,705,000 after acquiring an additional 3,440 shares during the period. Finally, Baxter Bros Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 71.5% in the first quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 14,948 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,089,000 after acquiring an additional 6,230 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $170.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $126.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $174.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.38.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BX shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.71.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total value of $8,829,594.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. This represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.