Ibex Wealth Advisors Acquires 4,170 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Ibex Wealth Advisors raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 52,007 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 4,170 shares during the quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,980,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 71,667,695 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,046,859,000 after purchasing an additional 840,258 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 32,862,165 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,065,374,000 after acquiring an additional 636,613 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,542,009 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,861,885,000 after acquiring an additional 179,213 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $1,275,747,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,324,989 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,251,474,000 after buying an additional 329,379 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Argus cut their target price on Blackstone from $163.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Monday, June 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Citizens Jmp cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $148.00.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $121.98 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $119.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $126.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $90.62 billion, a PE ratio of 31.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $101.73 and a 1 year high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.11 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were issued a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.67%.

Key Blackstone News

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone and TPG are reportedly trying to sell Hologic’s surgical unit for more than $4 billion, a sign of continued private-equity deal activity that could support fee-related earnings and investment returns. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Barclays is preparing an about $875 million debt sale to help finance Blackstone’s senior takeover, highlighting continued transaction momentum around the firm’s private credit and buyout activity. Yahoo Finance article
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens JMP lowered its price target on Blackstone to $165 from $190 but kept an “outperform” view, which still implies meaningful upside and may have helped support sentiment. Benzinga article
• Neutral Sentiment: Barclays also cut its price target to $119 from $124 and maintained an “equal weight” rating, signaling more cautious near-term expectations. Benzinga article
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles were mostly valuation- or comparison-based pieces about BX, which are less likely to drive the stock on their own. Zacks article
• Negative Sentiment: Blackstone was linked to an AI infrastructure financing structure in which Apollo and Blackstone reportedly shifted Broadcom and Anthropic’s AI chip bet into debt held by other investors, which may raise questions about risk transfer and financing complexity. MSN article

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total transaction of $3,775,461.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 899,669 shares in the company, valued at approximately $113,169,363.51. This represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone acquired 9,486,795 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $20.00 per share, with a total value of $189,735,900.00. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 9,111,800 shares in the company, valued at $182,236,000. The trade was a -2,529.85% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have bought 10,252,345 shares of company stock valued at $209,789,893 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Blackstone

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.