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

Franklin Resources Inc. decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,400,994 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 5,428 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.19% of Blackstone worth $215,949,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 34.6% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,917 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,035 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. United Bank boosted its position in Blackstone by 14.7% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 13,528 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,024,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729 shares during the period. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,124,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Blackstone by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 452,619 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $67,703,000 after purchasing an additional 8,655 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, insider Vikrant Sawhney sold 30,014 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.79, for a total transaction of $3,775,461.06. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 899,669 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,169,363.51. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 2,868,069 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $26.15 per share, for a total transaction of $75,000,004.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 18,628,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $487,129,914.25. This trade represents a 18.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders acquired 12,355,303 shares of company stock valued at $264,789,896 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 5.1%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $120.03 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $89.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.59. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $119.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $131.38. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $101.73 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.The company’s revenue was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.11 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citizens Jmp reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $195.00 to $190.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Blackstone from $143.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Dbs Bank raised Blackstone to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Blackstone from $142.00 to $136.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Blackstone from $126.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $150.86.

Key Stories Impacting Blackstone

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone is helping launch a $35 billion AI infrastructure financing platform with Broadcom and Apollo, with the initial capital aimed at expanding Anthropic’s compute capacity. Investors may view this as a high-profile growth opportunity tied to AI demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Reuters reported that Blackstone’s private wealth inflows improved in June, which suggests fundraising momentum may be stabilizing and could support future fee-related earnings. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone is also increasing investments in significant risk transfers, a growing market where banks seek balance-sheet relief and Blackstone can earn attractive returns and fees. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone presented at the Morgan Stanley U.S. Financials Conference, but no major new operating catalyst was indicated in the transcript headline. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: State regulators are reportedly recommending reversal of Blackstone’s $400 million TXNM Energy acquisition, citing legal violations. That raises execution and regulatory risk for the firm’s dealmaking business. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered its price target on Blackstone to $130 from $134 and kept a neutral rating, which may reinforce a more cautious view of near-term upside. Article Title

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.