Nicolet Bankshares Inc. Sells 84 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Nicolet Bankshares Inc. lowered its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,132 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 84 shares during the quarter. Nicolet Bankshares Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,402,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in 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. boosted 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 38.8% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $515,577,000 after buying an additional 835,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2,057.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $145,653,000 after buying an additional 805,604 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.22.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $127.19 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $92.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.04, a P/E/G 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 company’s 50 day moving average price is $149.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $165.63.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the company’s 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 $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.