FIL Ltd Trims Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

FIL Ltd cut its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 138,305 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 67,513 shares during the quarter. FIL Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $23,847,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $316,257,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 38.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $515,577,000 after purchasing an additional 835,170 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 2,057.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $145,653,000 after purchasing an additional 805,604 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. 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 note on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, JMP Securities upgraded Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.22.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $127.06 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $149.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.80. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $92.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.