Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys New Shares in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,930 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $933,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $221,478,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $8,667,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,561,000 after buying an additional 8,321 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the first quarter worth about $1,340,000. Finally, Marble Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $7,303,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 45,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.11, for a total transaction of $6,619,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 516,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,911,260.87. This represents a 8.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 765,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,001.54. Following the transaction, the insider owned 7,882,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,039,270.30. This represents a 10.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.43.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX stock opened at $142.63 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $107.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.91, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.55. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $130.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.86. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $101.73 and a one year high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The company had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 3rd. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 115.44%.

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.