DnB Asset Management AS Buys 11,445 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

DnB Asset Management AS boosted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 263,927 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,445 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $45,506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after purchasing an additional 348,751 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $2,272,227,000 after purchasing an additional 336,308 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $974,448,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 2.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 113,732 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought 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. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup restated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $144.81 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.89, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $161.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $167.38. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. Research 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.98%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.