California State Teachers Retirement System Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12,011.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 130,414,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 129,337,339 shares during the quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.17% of Blackstone worth $15,345,831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 59.8% during the second quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 2,591 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 970 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 114.1% during the second quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC now owns 24,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,838,000 after acquiring an additional 12,855 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 66.3% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 12,717 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,565,000 after acquiring an additional 5,069 shares in the last quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 42.2% in the 2nd quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC now owns 8,754 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,596 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 18.8% in the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 50,885 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,988,000 after buying an additional 8,047 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 765,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $26.14 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,001.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 7,882,145 shares in the company, valued at approximately $206,039,270.30. This trade represents 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 hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv L.P. Blackstone bought 272,642 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $26.14 per share, with a total value of $7,126,861.88. Following the transaction, the insider owned 8,704,419 shares in the company, valued at $227,533,512.66. This trade represents a 3.23% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock valued at $42,189,294 and sold 7,562,000 shares valued at $40,331,085. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $136.07 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $102.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.56. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $133.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $123.13. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $101.73 and a 12 month high of $190.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $5.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a $1.29 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 115.44%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their target price on Blackstone from $133.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $135.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, July 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $114.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Blackstone from $140.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $149.43.

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.