Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Sells 1,758 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV decreased its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 13,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,758 shares during the quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Center for Financial Planning Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Center for Financial Planning Inc. now owns 770 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $133,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Vicus Capital bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth $330,000. Banque Pictet & Cie SA boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1,629.2% in the 4th quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 31,472 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,426,000 after buying an additional 29,652 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 8.4% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 2,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $490,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $216,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, 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. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of BX opened at $165.09 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $176.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.28. The company has a market capitalization of $119.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 94.77%.

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.