TD Asset Management Inc Trims Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

TD Asset Management Inc lessened its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 273,570 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15,913 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $40,921,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi increased its stake in Blackstone by 69.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total transaction of $3,686,390.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, 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 90 days, insiders purchased 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on BX shares. JMP Securities increased their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Barclays decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $181.00 to $171.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.26.

Blackstone Stock Down 3.6%

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $158.01 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.66 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $116.47 billion, a PE ratio of 42.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $171.91 and its 200 day moving average is $154.68.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts anticipate 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 4th were given a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. 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%.

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.