Ariston Services Group Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Ariston Services Group acquired a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 8,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,287,000. Blackstone makes up 0.9% of Ariston Services Group’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its stake 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 worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% during the first 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. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $156.37 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $115.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $171.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $154.77.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 20.47% and a net margin of 20.83%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 4th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 110.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. HSBC lifted their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $179.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $166.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $181.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $180.26.

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.