Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Director Ruth Porat Acquires 301 Shares

Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE:BX traded down $3.03 on Thursday, reaching $163.83. 3,198,699 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,296,318. The firm has a market capitalization of $118.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $174.71 and its 200-day moving average is $165.04. 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 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business 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 an increase 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.52%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BX. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $974,448,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $316,257,000. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $239,837,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $11,533,972,000 after acquiring an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on BX. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.