Sage Investment Counsel LLC Invests $216,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sage Investment Counsel LLC bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 1,251 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Advocates Investment Management lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.9% during the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 6,681 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,023,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at $253,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 52.4% during the third quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 384 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at $140,000. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 318,676 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,799,000 after purchasing an additional 4,206 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, February 7th. 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 report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $161.01 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.82 and a one year 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 $116.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $171.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $166.23.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts expect 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 given a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. 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.