Guinness Asset Management LTD Acquires 109 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,697 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 109 shares during the quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter worth $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. HSBC raised their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $179.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 13th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $154.55 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $113.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.77. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $170.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.15.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.71%.

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.