Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Bought by Baird Financial Group Inc.

Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 215,285 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,005 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $32,202,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Wealth Preservation Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Anderson Financial Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Family CFO Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 385,208 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.96 per share, for a total transaction of $9,999,999.68. Following the transaction, the insider owned 16,332,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,001,642.68. The trade was a 2.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 2,950,751 shares of company stock worth $79,050,138. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 24th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $152.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $112.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $194.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $152.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $158.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.