Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Sold by Banque Pictet & Cie SA

Banque Pictet & Cie SA decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 36,924 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,619 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,523,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,365,000 after buying an additional 2,035 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $765,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $52,000. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.4% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 1,713 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $239,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Finally, Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the first quarter. Walnut Private Equity Partners LLC now owns 350,251 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,958,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 16,689,884 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.26, for a total value of $104,478,673.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value 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 approximately $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.1%

BX stock opened at $175.40 on Friday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $174.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $152.81. The firm has a market cap of $129.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.15, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.77.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. JMP Securities boosted their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Company 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.