3. Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 61
Dividend Yield as of October 19: 6.65%
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) is headquartered in New York, with offices across Asia, Europe, and North America. It 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. Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) delivers a dividend yield of 6.65%.
On October 12, Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Bedell assigned a Buy recommendation to Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) but slashed the price target on the shares to $134 from $153. The analyst views the alternative asset managers and exchanges as best positioned into the Q3 earnings prints. Overall, the analyst sees this year’s price drops as providing “good long-term entry points” for much of his coverage.
According to Insider Monkey’s Q2 data, 61 hedge funds were long Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX), with combined stakes worth $1.85 billion, compared to 61 funds in the prior quarter worth $2.8 billion. Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital is the largest stakeholder of the company, with 2.82 million shares worth $257.40 million.
Here is what RiverPark Funds specifically said about Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:
“Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) has been investing in private markets since 1987. The company today has over $900 billion in assets under management as compared with about $70 billion at the time of its 2007 debut as a public company. The company’s world-class reputation is built on its superior investment returns which, in private equity, have delivered a compounded 16% net to investors for over 30 years.
BX’s business is asset light and brand heavy as the company has virtually no net debt against its $110 billion equity market capitalization and pays out a large percentage of its earnings each year in dividends (while also supporting a steady stock buyback program). Fee related earnings (a conservative proxy for EPS that does not include lucrative performance fees) have increased 225% since the company’s Investor Day 3.5 years ago, having compounded more than 35% annually over that time.
The company continues to target strong AUM growth, expecting to raise in excess of $150 billion in new assets over the next 1.5 years as it continues to lead in an alternative management industry that continues to take share of institutional assets. AUM in the alt space has steadily migrated up from a low single digit share 25 years ago to the low 30% range today with substantial additional growth coming from the retail and insurance industries. By 2030, some analysts estimate that allocations to alternatives could double again to over 60% of institutional AUM. Today, while AUM in the alternative industry has grown to $10 trillion, there are over $250 trillion of assets in stocks and bonds, leaving a vast runway of growth available for the future…” (Click here to read the full text)
