Country Club Bank Lowers Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Country Club Bank cut its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.3% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 784 shares during the quarter. Country Club Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,504,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $164.83 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $121.50 billion, a PE ratio of 44.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.03. 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.77 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current 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 issued a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 110.75%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 3,727,877 shares of company stock valued at $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $181.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. 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 research report on Monday, July 28th. 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 research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, 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 report on Monday, September 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.83.

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.