Northbridge Financial Group LLC Buys New Position in Blackstone Inc. $BX

Northbridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 4,933 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $760,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Jain Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at $9,116,000. Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 1,270,608 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $217,083,000 after acquiring an additional 24,237 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 840,401 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $143,582,000 after acquiring an additional 142,479 shares during the last quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 16,035.1% during the 3rd quarter. Close Asset Management Ltd now owns 1,140,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $194,746,000 after purchasing an additional 1,133,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 346,318 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $58,337,000 after purchasing an additional 7,053 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Key Blackstone News

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone and Google announced a joint venture to build a new AI cloud company centered on Google’s Tensor Processing Units, giving Blackstone exposure to a fast-growing AI infrastructure market. Blackstone Announces Joint Venture with Google to Create New TPU Cloud
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Blackstone is committing $5 billion in equity to the venture, which may be viewed as a significant long-term investment in AI compute capacity and a potential new growth driver. Blackstone and Google form AI infrastructure joint venture focused on TPU cloud expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary said the Blackstone-Google deal is pressuring smaller cloud infrastructure names, suggesting investors may see Blackstone as better positioned than leveraged AI infrastructure competitors. Google and Blackstone to Create New AI Cloud Company. The Stocks Are Rising.
• Neutral Sentiment: TD Cowen lowered its price target on Blackstone to $133 from $140, but kept a Buy rating, which points to continued upside expectations despite the trim.
• Neutral Sentiment: Blackstone also abandoned its pursuit of the €2.5 billion Stroeer deal, a separate M&A item that does not appear central to the stock’s immediate move.
• Neutral Sentiment: A major shareholder, Treasury Holdings I. Blackstone, disclosed a large share purchase, which can be read as a confidence signal but is less likely to move the stock by itself.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BX. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Blackstone from $154.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $126.00 to $124.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on Blackstone from $156.00 to $146.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. HSBC lowered their target price on Blackstone from $164.00 to $131.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Blackstone from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.05.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $114.31 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $84.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.24, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.63. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $101.73 and a 52-week high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $117.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $134.14.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The asset manager reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.67% and a return on equity of 22.86%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.11 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 2,868,069 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 20th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $26.15 per share, with a total value of $75,000,004.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 18,628,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $487,129,914.25. This trade represents a 18.20% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 13,502,092 shares of company stock valued at $294,789,896 and sold 9,128,660 shares valued at $46,457,920. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.