Legal & General Group Plc Has $713.44 Million Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Legal & General Group Plc lessened its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,628,508 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 49,489 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $713,438,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jain Global LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $9,116,000. Fayez Sarofim & Co grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 1,270,608 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $217,083,000 after purchasing an additional 24,237 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 20.4% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 840,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $143,582,000 after purchasing an additional 142,479 shares in the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd grew its stake in Blackstone by 16,035.1% in the third quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,746,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. grew its stake in Blackstone by 2.1% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 346,318 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $58,337,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $118.58 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $117.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $133.54. The company has a market capitalization of $88.09 billion, a PE ratio of 30.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.63. 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 0.66, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

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 firm had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.86% and a net margin of 20.67%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.11 EPS. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.9 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 4th were issued a $1.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.67%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 7,477,504 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.51, for a total value of $26,246,039.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 25,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $90,670.32. The trade was a 99.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone acquired 2,868,069 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $26.15 per share, with a total value of $75,000,004.35. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 18,628,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $487,129,914.25. This represents a 18.20% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 12,355,303 shares of company stock worth $264,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares worth $46,457,920. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BX. Weiss Ratings cut Blackstone from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Citizens Jmp cut their price target on Blackstone from $195.00 to $190.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $126.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Blackstone from $154.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.05.

About Blackstone

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.