Alta Advisers Ltd Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Alta Advisers Ltd raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 26.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,406 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $239,837,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 835,170 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BX. JMP Securities raised Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.11.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $120.22 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $87.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.12, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.66 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $144.31 and its 200 day moving average is $164.73.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.98 EPS. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.93 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

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.