Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Raises Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 178,950 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 11,568 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $26,767,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,542,863 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,462,706,000 after buying an additional 227,416 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 4.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 324 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $146.92 per share, for a total transaction of $47,602.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 39,077 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,741,192.84. The trade was a 0.84% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on BX shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $165.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Blackstone from $166.00 to $164.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $141.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $104.46 billion, a PE ratio of 40.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $163.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results 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 for the quarter. Analysts anticipate 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 was paid on Monday, November 10th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 147.43%.

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.