Baxter Bros Inc. Grows Stake in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Baxter Bros Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,342 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,204 shares during the period. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 519,669.1% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after purchasing an additional 70,118,948 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,394,670,000 after buying an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in Blackstone by 69.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,421,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $323,000,000 after acquiring an additional 990,947 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in Blackstone by 31.9% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,803,344 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $568,902,000 after acquiring an additional 919,773 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $155.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $115.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $159.42. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.66 and a 1-year high of $190.09.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%.The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were paid a dividend of $1.29 per share. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 147.43%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total value of $19,852,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 695,757 shares in the company, valued at $122,237,547.33. The trade was a 13.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 385,208 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The stock was bought at an average price of $25.96 per share, with a total value of $9,999,999.68. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 16,332,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $424,001,642.68. This trade represents a 2.42% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have bought 797,148 shares of company stock valued at $24,050,153. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $187.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their target price on Blackstone from $178.00 to $167.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.95.

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.