Bard Financial Services Inc. Sells 250 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Bard Financial Services Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 29,625 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 250 shares during the quarter. Bard Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Blackstone by 8.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 58,229 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,053,000 after purchasing an additional 4,688 shares during the last quarter. First Citizens Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $267,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,992 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,550,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Blackstone by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,586 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $446,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Finally, Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.0% during the third quarter. Independent Solutions Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,504 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,221,000 after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $188.00 to $195.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 1st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.2 %

Blackstone stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $176.24. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 924,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,621,779. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.88 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $127.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $180.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $155.31.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.21%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate 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.