Legal & General Group Plc Purchases New Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,143,770 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $605,267,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 100,951 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $15,561,000 after acquiring an additional 8,321 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Private Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at about $1,340,000. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 92.2% during the first quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 807,184 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $92,817,000 after purchasing an additional 387,109 shares during the last quarter. Marble Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $7,303,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 992,449 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $152,976,000 after buying an additional 152,048 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 371 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $137.17 per share, with a total value of $50,890.07. Following the acquisition, the director owned 42,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,787,065.13. This represents a 0.89% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO David Payne sold 9,500 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.23, for a total transaction of $1,379,685.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 64,448 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,359,783.04. This represents a 12.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 1,611,822 shares of company stock worth $42,189,294 and sold 7,562,000 shares worth $40,331,085. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Blackstone from $161.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Monday, June 8th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $114.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $126.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Argus raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $147.95.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $143.66 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $101.73 and a 1 year high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.50. The company has a market capitalization of $107.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.18. Blackstone had a return on equity of 23.77% and a net margin of 21.84%.The company had revenue of $5.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 35.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 3rd were paid a $1.29 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 3rd. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 115.44%.

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.