Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,372 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after buying an additional 141,616 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $602,017,000 after purchasing an additional 61,739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,591,452 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $243,699,000 after purchasing an additional 24,199 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America upped their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $201.54 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.40, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $105.51 and a 52 week high of $201.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $165.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.79.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone 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 directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % 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 insiders.

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.