Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 403,686 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,440 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned 0.06% of Blackstone worth $61,816,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position 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 worth $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings 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 valued at $170,345,000 after buying an additional 937,084 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 468.4% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $137,114,000 after acquiring an additional 912,685 shares during the period. Finally, Castleark Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at approximately $67,472,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BX. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $164.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $185.39 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $133.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $112.09 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

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.