Tradewinds LLC. Acquires New Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Tradewinds LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,723 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 268.6% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 17,463 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,674,000 after purchasing an additional 12,725 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 8,448 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,294,000 after buying an additional 605 shares during the last quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 14.0% during the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 13,895 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 0.8% in the third quarter. Harmony Asset Management LLC now owns 9,319 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,427,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 49.0% during the 3rd quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 23,728 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,633,000 after purchasing an additional 7,800 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the purchase, the director now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.13.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $142.77 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $104.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.33, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.82 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $167.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.03%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 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.