Norges Bank Purchases New Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Norges Bank bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 5,651,597 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $974,448,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $316,257,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 805,604 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 111.1% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $167,825,000 after acquiring an additional 512,165 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 51.0% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,430,555 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $248,723,000 after purchasing an additional 483,362 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. 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. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE BX opened at $144.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $105.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $161.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $167.38.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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, analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.