Conway Capital Management Inc. Takes $2.23 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Conway Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 14,567 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,231,000. Blackstone makes up about 1.1% of Conway Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 20th biggest position.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after purchasing an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $775,758,000 after buying an additional 141,616 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $602,017,000 after purchasing an additional 61,739 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $185.39 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $133.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.71, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $112.09 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’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 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was 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 owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on BX. Citigroup increased their price objective on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $164.25.

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.