Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Stock Position Increased by Geller Advisors LLC

Geller Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 56.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,161 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 778 shares during the quarter. Geller Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $373,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 909,698 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $139,302,000 after purchasing an additional 51,897 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 232.1% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 279 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Weybosset Research & Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $224,000. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 91,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,737,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205 shares during the period. Finally, Hilltop National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 12,998 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,241,000 after buying an additional 470 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 price target on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Blackstone from $233.00 to $147.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $222.00 to $150.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Citizens Jmp raised shares of Blackstone from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $165.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $154.82.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $139.41 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.66 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $136.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $162.27. The firm has a market cap of $101.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.22 by ($0.13). Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. The company had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.98 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.93 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $3.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 112.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 25,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.47, for a total value of $3,461,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 475,336 shares in the company, valued at $65,819,775.92. This trade represents a 5.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Ruth Porat bought 237 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the transaction, the director now owns 37,067 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 1,660,538 shares of company stock valued at $24,981,930. 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.