BankPlus Trust Department Purchases Shares of 17,700 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 17,700 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,052,000. Blackstone makes up approximately 1.0% of BankPlus Trust Department’s holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bangor Savings Bank grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen raised Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $158.21 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $114.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.58, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.82 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.74.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.