Partners Group Holding AG Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Partners Group Holding AG boosted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 334,073 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,352 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for 3.5% of Partners Group Holding AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Partners Group Holding AG’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $51,494,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 70,827,437 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,100,868,000 after buying an additional 1,335,060 shares in the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd lifted its position 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 buying an additional 1,133,197 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 115.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,088,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $162,861,000 after buying an additional 583,384 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,107,665 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $701,795,000 after buying an additional 416,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,362,796 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,358,334,000 after purchasing an additional 412,281 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone and Google announced a joint venture to build a new AI cloud company centered on Google’s Tensor Processing Units, giving Blackstone exposure to a fast-growing AI infrastructure market. Blackstone Announces Joint Venture with Google to Create New TPU Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Blackstone is committing $5 billion in equity to the venture, which may be viewed as a significant long-term investment in AI compute capacity and a potential new growth driver. Blackstone and Google form AI infrastructure joint venture focused on TPU cloud expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary said the Blackstone-Google deal is pressuring smaller cloud infrastructure names, suggesting investors may see Blackstone as better positioned than leveraged AI infrastructure competitors. Google and Blackstone to Create New AI Cloud Company. The Stocks Are Rising.
• Neutral Sentiment: TD Cowen lowered its price target on Blackstone to $133 from $140, but kept a Buy rating, which points to continued upside expectations despite the trim.
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone also abandoned its pursuit of the €2.5 billion Stroeer deal, a separate M&A item that does not appear central to the stock’s immediate move.
• Neutral Sentiment: A major shareholder, Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone, disclosed a large share purchase, which can be read as a confidence signal but is less likely to move the stock by itself.

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 $195.00 to $190.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Argus decreased their price target 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. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $133.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.05.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.3%

Blackstone stock opened at $114.31 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $101.73 and a 1-year high of $190.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.63. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $134.14.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.11 EPS. Blackstone’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Investors of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were 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 directly owned 899,669 shares in the company, valued at $113,169,363.51. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders bought 13,502,092 shares of company stock worth $294,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares worth $46,457,920. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.