SlateStone Wealth LLC Acquires 250 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

SlateStone Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,338 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 250 shares during the quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BX. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 23.6% in the third quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,918 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $600,000 after acquiring an additional 748 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 55.8% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,272 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $654,000 after buying an additional 1,530 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,148 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,463,000 after buying an additional 3,236 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 61.4% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 329,139 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $50,401,000 after buying an additional 125,264 shares during the period. Finally, Sather Financial Group Inc grew its holdings in Blackstone by 202.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $141.01 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $102.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $165.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $167.21. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 158.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on BX. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target 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. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

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.