TCW Group Inc. Sells 41,136 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

TCW Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 80.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,133 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 41,136 shares during the quarter. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after acquiring an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,272,227,000 after acquiring an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $602,017,000 after acquiring an additional 61,739 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 3.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,430,909 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $525,375,000 after buying an additional 116,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,155,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $330,006,000 after buying an additional 124,462 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BX. TD Cowen upgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX opened at $157.27 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $172.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.93. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.82 and a 1 year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.55 billion, a PE ratio of 43.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company 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 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 3.66%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 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.