Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,603 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,654,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,637,266,000 after buying an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $133.03 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $115.82 and a one year high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $157.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $167.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.65, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. TD Cowen raised Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target 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 analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

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.