Blackstone Inc. $BX Stock Holdings Raised by Czech National Bank

Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 187,205 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,854 shares during the period. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $31,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,542,863 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,462,706,000 after buying an additional 227,416 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,071,348,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 4.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,532,941 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $678,037,000 after acquiring an additional 202,245 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.7%

Blackstone stock opened at $153.10 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $190.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $113.06 billion, a PE ratio of 43.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.76. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $158.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a $1.29 dividend. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 147.43%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone purchased 2,538,071 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. This represents a 51.09% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 2,950,751 shares of company stock worth $79,050,138. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Blackstone from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. HSBC reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $179.00 to $178.00 in a report on Monday, October 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.95.

About Blackstone

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.