Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Machina Capital S.A.S.

Machina Capital S.A.S. lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 665.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,991 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,163 shares during the period. Machina Capital S.A.S.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arcus Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the second quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC now owns 4,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Mattern Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.8% in the second quarter. Mattern Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone by 3.5% during the second quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,784 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 0.8% during the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 8,036 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, WNY Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.7% during the second quarter. WNY Asset Management LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $171.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $166.00 target price on shares of Blackstone and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3%

BX opened at $146.45 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $107.94 billion, a PE ratio of 41.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.77. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $168.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 22.30%. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director James Breyer bought 13,170 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $151.23 per share, with a total value of $1,991,699.10. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 55,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,318,557.38. This trade represents a 31.48% 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, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 50,850 shares of the 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 sale, the insider directly owned 737,248 shares in the company, valued at $128,015,742.72. This trade represents a 6.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders acquired 2,551,515 shares of company stock valued at $67,038,327 and sold 16,984,634 shares valued at $155,181,346. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.