Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC Sells 114 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC trimmed its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,270 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 114 shares during the quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 73,856 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,734,000 after acquiring an additional 5,057 shares in the last quarter. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. First Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. First Bank & Trust now owns 1,690 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $381,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 266,414 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $45,935,000 after buying an additional 39,542 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $158.21 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.82 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. As a group, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.