7,896 Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Purchased by DRW Securities LLC

DRW Securities LLC bought a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 7,896 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,361,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Norges Bank bought a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $974,448,000. 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. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 38.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,990,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $515,577,000 after purchasing an additional 835,170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2,057.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $145,653,000 after purchasing an additional 805,604 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $186.00 to $129.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone from $182.00 to $140.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JMP Securities upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to a “market outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.22.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $137.94 on Thursday. 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’s 50-day moving average is $150.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $166.02. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $100.62 billion, a PE ratio of 38.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors 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 represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.18%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is 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.