Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. Cuts Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. cut its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,901 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,212 shares during the quarter. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 125.0% during the fourth quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $621,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,050,000. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,603 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,654,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 72,823 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,556,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nicolet Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 11,997 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,978,000 after buying an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports 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 report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.06.

Blackstone Trading Down 6.3 %

BX stock opened at $124.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.82 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $156.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.03. The firm has a market cap of $90.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.35, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 158.68%.

Blackstone 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.