Wealthfront Advisers LLC Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 22.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 70,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,856 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $12,018,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 152,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $26,016,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.7% during the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 21,445 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,664,000 after acquiring an additional 367 shares during the period. Marest Capital LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter worth about $1,150,000. Profund Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 19.3% during the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 9,734 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proactive Wealth Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Proactive Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 21,356 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,649,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

More Blackstone News

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big increase in Anthropic stake boosts BX’s AI exposure — reports say Blackstone has raised its investment in AI chatbot maker Anthropic to roughly $1 billion (implying continued balance-sheet commitment to high-growth AI assets and potential long-term upside). Blackstone boosts stake in Anthropic
• Positive Sentiment: Large debt package to Australian AI-infrastructure developer Firmus (reported as a $10B financing with Coatue) highlights BX’s originations/lending scale into AI infrastructure, supporting fee and interest-income growth. Firmus financing
• Positive Sentiment: Management pivoting toward data centers and healthtech signals allocation into secular growth sectors (could support higher valuation multiples if executed). Blackstone targets data centers and healthtech
• Neutral Sentiment: Brookfield is reportedly in talks to buy Fidere (BX’s hospitality/real estate stake) for about $1.2B — a sale could crystallize value or reduce recurring earnings depending on price and use of proceeds. Brookfield talks to buy Fidere
• Neutral Sentiment: Transcript from Blackstone’s Bank of America presentation is available — useful for details on fee cadence, deal pipeline and distribution outlook but contains no single market-moving surprise. BofA conference transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Founder Steve Schwarzman’s push to build a major private foundation is a governance/capital-allocation signal but unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. Schwarzman foundation plans
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies trimmed its BX price target from $185 to $161 while keeping a buy rating — a sign analysts are downgrading upside expectations even if conviction remains. Jefferies lowers price target

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX opened at $133.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.79 billion, a PE ratio of 34.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $190.09. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $151.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.84.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The asset manager reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $4.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.17% and a net margin of 20.89%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 41.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.69 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th will be issued a $1.49 dividend. This represents a $5.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 9th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 153.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Blackstone from $185.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Argus cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $163.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $158.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.68.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 2,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,610. This represents a 99.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone acquired 385,208 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.96 per share, with a total value of $9,999,999.68. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 16,332,883 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,001,642.68. This represents a 2.42% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.