Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Buys 4,154 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA grew its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 145.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,004 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 4,154 shares during the quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,637,266,000 after acquiring an additional 444,887 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,016,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,209,707,000 after purchasing an additional 681,512 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Blackstone by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,032,400,000 after buying an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $974,448,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,005. The trade was a 24,898.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total transaction of $3,461,750.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 475,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,819,775.92. The trade was a 5.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of BX opened at $140.68 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $136.18 and its 200-day moving average is $156.23. The firm has a market cap of $102.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.75, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were given a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 112.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $139.00 to $153.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Citizens Jmp upgraded Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.65.

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.