Cynosure Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Cynosure Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 21.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,740 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 667 shares during the period. Cynosure Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased 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 acquiring an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after purchasing 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% in the second 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 last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 468.4% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,107,547 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $137,114,000 after buying an additional 912,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its position in Blackstone by 7,917.6% in the 2nd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 400,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $49,520,000 after buying an additional 395,011 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Bank of America increased their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $188.89 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $136.38 billion, a PE ratio of 64.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.49. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $168.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $144.07. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $106.00 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, 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. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Company 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.