Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 207,442 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 7,398 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $31,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,102,949 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $151,524,000. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 69.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 valued at $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $148.42 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $168.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $156.52. The company has a market capitalization of $109.40 billion, a PE ratio of 42.40, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%.The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. This trade represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.46, for a total value of $3,686,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 453,836 shares in the company, valued at $77,814,720.56. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders bought 2,538,345 shares of company stock valued at $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BX shares. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $207.00 to $199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $168.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

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.