Country Club Bank Reduces Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Country Club Bank cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 784 shares during the period. Country Club Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second 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 buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,504,702,000 after buying an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after purchasing an additional 742,829 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.4% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,872,000 after purchasing an additional 182,526 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $581,886,000 after buying an additional 117,724 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares in the company, valued at $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. This trade represents a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have purchased 3,727,877 shares of company stock worth $95,046,625 and have sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $190.00 price objective for the company. JMP Securities boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $181.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $176.83.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $164.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $154.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $121.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.31, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.66 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The asset manager reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.77 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.83% and a return on equity of 20.47%. The business’s revenue was up 32.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 4th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.93. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.75%.

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.