Next Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Next Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 25,197 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,965,000. Blackstone makes up 0.8% of Next Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,275,747,000. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 99.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,381,767 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $983,690,000 after buying an additional 3,178,133 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter worth approximately $164,597,000. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 85.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,709,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $417,620,000 after purchasing an additional 1,249,269 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 476.1% in the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 1,324,168 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $204,193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094,307 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total value of $6,619,950.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 516,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,911,260.87. This trade represents a 8.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 765,111 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $26.14 per share, with a total value of $20,000,001.54. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 7,882,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,039,270.30. This trade represents a 10.75% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 1,339,180 shares of company stock valued at $35,062,433 and sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on BX. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp cut their price target on Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.95.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $143.94 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $108.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.20, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.56. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $101.73 and a 52 week high of $190.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $126.51 and a 200-day moving average of $122.70.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 23.77%. The firm’s revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Investors of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 115.44%.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.