Aberdeen Group plc Buys 268,965 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Aberdeen Group plc raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 77.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 617,382 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 268,965 shares during the quarter. Aberdeen Group plc owned about 0.08% of Blackstone worth $84,689,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Blackstone by 105.4% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 13,405 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,874,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $63,109,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 6.6% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 31,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Comprehensive Money Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth $1,747,000. Finally, Narwhal Capital Management raised its holdings in Blackstone by 34.3% in the first quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 64,614 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,032,000 after purchasing an additional 16,486 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, CAO David Payne sold 9,400 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.97, for a total transaction of $1,597,718.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 54,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,261,325.36. The trade was a 14.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total transaction of $104,478,673.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 1,189,806 shares of company stock worth $30,046,627 and have sold 16,850,134 shares worth $131,641,986. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $171.61 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $159.05 and a 200-day moving average of $150.12. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $126.49 billion, a PE ratio of 46.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.11. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.77 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 110.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on BX. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $153.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $170.12.

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.