Whetstone Capital Advisors LLC Invests $210,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

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

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after buying an additional 7,281,128 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third 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 in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 213.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,375,969 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $170,345,000 after purchasing an additional 937,084 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in Blackstone by 468.4% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $137,114,000 after buying an additional 912,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 7,917.6% during the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 400,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,520,000 after acquiring an additional 395,011 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

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

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $201.54 on Monday. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average is $165.86 and its 200 day moving average is $142.79. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $105.51 and a twelve month high of $201.54. The company 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on BX. Barclays boosted their target price on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Blackstone 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.