Candriam S.C.A. Trims Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Candriam S.C.A. lowered its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 43,646 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 734 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $6,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth $151,524,000. Amundi raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after buying an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. HSBC reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $179.00.

Blackstone Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $141.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 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 of $163.12 and a 200-day moving average of $157.60. The company has a market capitalization of $104.46 billion, a PE ratio of 40.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were issued a $1.29 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders acquired 2,565,543 shares of company stock worth $69,050,139 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.