Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. decreased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 12.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 370,073 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 52,678 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $63,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its stake in Blackstone by 187.5% during the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BX. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $152.13 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $110.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.91, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $163.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.59. 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 52 week low of $115.82 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.