United Bank Buys New Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

United Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 16,880 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,986,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,561,000 after acquiring an additional 8,321 shares during the period. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $1,340,000. Marble Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $7,303,000. 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 during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 92.2% in the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 807,184 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $92,817,000 after buying an additional 387,109 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Blackstone from $122.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Barclays boosted their target price on Blackstone from $119.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, June 8th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 765,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $26.14 per share, with a total value of $20,000,001.54. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,882,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,039,270.30. This trade represents a 10.75% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.78, for a total value of $28,264,950.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 19,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,233.72. The trade was a 99.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 1,339,180 shares of company stock valued at $35,062,433 and sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Up 3.2%

Blackstone stock opened at $145.15 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $127.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.43. The company has a market cap of $108.95 billion, a PE ratio of 32.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $101.73 and a 1-year high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its 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 the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.98 earnings per share. Blackstone’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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