Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. Acquires Shares of 5,074 Blackstone Inc. $BX

Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 5,074 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $867,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $1,071,348,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 2.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,492,377 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,394,670,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494,796 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 31.9% in the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 3,803,344 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $568,902,000 after buying an additional 919,773 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 115.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,088,786 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $162,861,000 after acquiring an additional 583,384 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 2,904,030 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $444,494,000 after acquiring an additional 482,528 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $158.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Barclays dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $164.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore lowered their target price on Blackstone from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $176.00 to $158.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $173.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone bought 384,468 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $26.01 per share, with a total value of $10,000,012.68. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 16,525,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $429,818,293.17. This represents a 2.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $15,961,420.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 2,161 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,610. The trade was a 99.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Big increase in Anthropic stake boosts BX’s AI exposure — reports say Blackstone has raised its investment in AI chatbot maker Anthropic to roughly $1 billion (implying continued balance-sheet commitment to high-growth AI assets and potential long-term upside). Blackstone boosts stake in Anthropic
• Positive Sentiment: Large debt package to Australian AI-infrastructure developer Firmus (reported as a $10B financing with Coatue) highlights BX’s originations/lending scale into AI infrastructure, supporting fee and interest-income growth. Firmus financing
• Positive Sentiment: Management pivoting toward data centers and healthtech signals allocation into secular growth sectors (could support higher valuation multiples if executed). Blackstone targets data centers and healthtech
• Neutral Sentiment: Brookfield is reportedly in talks to buy Fidere (BX’s hospitality/real estate stake) for about $1.2B — a sale could crystallize value or reduce recurring earnings depending on price and use of proceeds. Brookfield talks to buy Fidere
• Neutral Sentiment: Transcript from Blackstone’s Bank of America presentation is available — useful for details on fee cadence, deal pipeline and distribution outlook but contains no single market-moving surprise. BofA conference transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Founder Steve Schwarzman’s push to build a major private foundation is a governance/capital-allocation signal but unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. Schwarzman foundation plans
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies trimmed its BX price target from $185 to $161 while keeping a buy rating — a sign analysts are downgrading upside expectations even if conviction remains. Jefferies lowers price target

Blackstone Trading Up 1.8%

BX opened at $133.78 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $151.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $158.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.48, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $190.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The asset manager reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $4.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 22.17%. Blackstone’s revenue for the quarter was up 41.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Investors of record on Monday, February 9th will be paid a $1.49 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 9th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 153.61%.

About Blackstone

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.