Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Major Shareholder Buys $189,735,900.00 in Stock

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) major shareholder Treasury Holdings Blackstone bought 9,486,795 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $20.00 per share, with a total value of $189,735,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 9,111,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $182,236,000. This represents a -2,529.85% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Major shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $118.63 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $117.51 and a 200-day moving average of $133.72. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $101.73 and a 12-month high of $190.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $88.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.34, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.11 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.67%.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jain Global LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $9,116,000. Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 1,270,608 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $217,083,000 after purchasing an additional 24,237 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 20.4% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 840,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $143,582,000 after purchasing an additional 142,479 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 16,035.1% during the 3rd quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $194,746,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 346,318 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $58,337,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $173.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 24th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Blackstone from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Argus lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $163.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.05.

Key Stories Impacting Blackstone

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone announced a major joint venture with Google to build a U.S. AI data center platform focused on TPU compute-as-a-service, with Blackstone committing $5 billion in equity. Investors may view this as a meaningful long-term growth initiative tied to surging AI infrastructure demand. Blackstone Steps Deeper Into AI With Google TPUs Data Center Venture
• Positive Sentiment: A Blackstone-backed AI enterprise services company acquired Fractional AI, adding to the company’s AI ecosystem exposure and reinforcing the theme that Blackstone is expanding into artificial intelligence-related assets. Blackstone-backed AI enterprise services firm acquires Fractional AI
• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone insider Treasury Holdings disclosed a purchase of about 9.5 million shares, which can be interpreted as a strong confidence signal from a large shareholder. Insider Buying: Blackstone Major Shareholder Purchases 9,486,795 Shares of Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust completed the full underwriter option in its IPO, bringing gross proceeds above $2 billion; this supports Blackstone’s platform expansion, but it is more of a capital-markets item than a direct catalyst for BX shares. Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust Announces Full Exercise and Closing of Underwriters Option
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports said Blackstone walked away from a $4 billion deal with New World Development, a setback for its deal pipeline but not necessarily a major driver of the stock by itself. Blackstone Reportedly Walks away from USD4B Deal With New World Dev

Blackstone Company 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.