Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 53,049 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,684,829 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 53,049 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.23% of Blackstone worth $252,017,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after buying an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.6% in 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 last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 1st quarter valued at $151,524,000. Amundi raised its position in Blackstone by 69.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $323,000,000 after purchasing an additional 990,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $739,761,000 after acquiring an additional 742,829 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $154.55 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $170.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $155.77. The company has a market cap of $113.92 billion, a PE ratio of 44.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.66 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm 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%. On average, analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd will be paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 3rd. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.3%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 117.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on BX shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 target price on shares of Blackstone and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $172.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $180.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $173.64, for a total transaction of $8,829,594.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 737,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $128,015,742.72. The trade was a 6.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders purchased 2,538,345 shares of company stock worth $65,046,628 and sold 16,984,634 shares worth $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.