Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Purchased by Harbor Advisors LLC

Harbor Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 77.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,700 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Harbor Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,362,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,045,143 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $697,464,000 after buying an additional 113,732 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,430,909 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $525,375,000 after buying an additional 116,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,155,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $330,006,000 after buying an additional 124,462 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $148.65 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.82 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $108.43 billion, a PE ratio of 40.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The business’s fifty day moving average is $163.53 and its 200-day moving average is $167.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.87%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

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.