Crestwood Advisors Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Crestwood Advisors Group LLC lowered its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 507,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,669 shares during the quarter. Blackstone accounts for 1.6% of Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Crestwood Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $87,490,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $158.21 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.82 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company 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. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $173.58 and its 200 day moving average is $165.74. 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 (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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.