Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Lowers Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,613,494 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 63,571 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.22% of Blackstone worth $185,536,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Blackstone by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 227,440 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $26,005,000 after purchasing an additional 7,409 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% during the first quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 85,737 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,179 shares in the last quarter. Stenger Family Office LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 7.7% during the first quarter. Stenger Family Office LLC now owns 14,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,683,000 after buying an additional 1,049 shares during the period. Warner Group LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Warner Group LLC now owns 3,690 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $424,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 346.4% in the 1st quarter. Virginia Wealth Management Group Inc. now owns 39,215 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,509,000 after acquiring an additional 30,430 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Monday, June 8th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. 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 report on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, HSBC reduced their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $131.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $148.00.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 765,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,001.54. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,882,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $206,039,270.30. The trade was a 10.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone bought 9,486,795 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $20.00 per share, with a total value of $189,735,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,111,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $182,236,000. This trade represents a -2,529.85% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 10,252,345 shares of company stock valued at $209,789,893. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $121.98 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $90.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.20, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $101.73 and a 52 week high of $190.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $119.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $126.98.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $3.43 billion for 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%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.11 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 4th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 4th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.67%.

Blackstone 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.