Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Bought by Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 198.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,536 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,334 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 232.8% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $151,000 after purchasing an additional 810 shares in the last quarter. BOKF NA lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. BOKF NA now owns 7,824 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after buying an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Blackstone by 39.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,345,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $176,695,000 after buying an additional 383,827 shares in the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 322.9% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 20,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,632,000 after purchasing an additional 15,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter valued at approximately $5,486,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $199.05 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $165.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $142.79. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $105.51 and a fifty-two week high of $199.95. The firm has a market cap of $143.71 billion, a PE ratio of 68.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays upped their price objective on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

About Blackstone

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.