Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Boosts Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,456 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 982 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,357,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $37,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.25.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE BX opened at $185.39 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $133.85 billion, a PE ratio of 63.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $112.09 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $173.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $147.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.