Huntington National Bank Increases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 24,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 394 shares during the quarter. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $974,448,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $316,257,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th 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. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2,057.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $145,653,000 after purchasing an additional 805,604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Axiom Investors LLC DE increased its holdings in Blackstone by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. Axiom Investors LLC DE now owns 1,984,892 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $342,235,000 after buying an additional 753,766 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 3.5 %

BX opened at $147.80 on Thursday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. 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 stock has a market cap of $107.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $158.58 and its 200 day moving average is $167.47.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.90%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Citigroup restated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought 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 $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Blackstone

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.