Daiichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Buys Shares of 21,439 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Daiichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 21,439 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,523,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter worth $6,112,162,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $1,275,747,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $514,736,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 99.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,381,767 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $983,690,000 after buying an additional 3,178,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $270,380,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citizens Jmp decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $165.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Dbs Bank upgraded Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price target on Blackstone from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Blackstone to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.95.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 573,614 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $15,000,006.10. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 8,455,758 shares in the company, valued at approximately $221,118,071.70. This trade represents a 7.28% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total value of $1,379,685.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 64,448 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,359,783.04. This trade represents a 12.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 1,339,180 shares of company stock valued at $35,062,433 and have sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.1%

Blackstone stock opened at $143.56 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $101.73 and a twelve month high of $190.09. The business has a fifty day moving average of $128.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.44. The firm has a market cap of $107.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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