Blackstone Inc. $BX Shares Purchased by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,528,407 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 72,109 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.21% of Blackstone worth $228,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,532,941 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $678,037,000 after acquiring an additional 202,245 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 35,975.0% in the second quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 4,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $648,000 after purchasing an additional 4,317 shares during the period. Personal CFO Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 4.0% during the second quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 4,823 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $721,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in Blackstone by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 265,376 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $39,695,000 after buying an additional 8,523 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC raised its position in Blackstone by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 15,064 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,253,000 after buying an additional 2,460 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $200.00 to $199.00 in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $185.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 13th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.00.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $142.59 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The business’s 50 day moving average is $159.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.92. The company has a market capitalization of $105.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced 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 business had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 147.43%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 324 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $146.92 per share, for a total transaction of $47,602.08. Following the acquisition, the director owned 39,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,741,192.84. This represents a 0.84% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone bought 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.61 per share, with a total value of $64,999,998.31. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders bought a total of 2,565,543 shares of company stock worth $69,050,139 in the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Company 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.