Excalibur Management Corp Sells 749 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Excalibur Management Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 749 shares during the quarter. Excalibur Management Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,096,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bangor Savings Bank raised its holdings in Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of several recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.13.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $151.29 on Wednesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $162.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $110.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.68, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

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.