WealthPlan Investment Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

WealthPlan Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 60.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 26,213 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,830 shares during the quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 12,192.7% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 7,340,845 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $908,797,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281,128 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.5% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 36,285,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,766,875,000 after purchasing an additional 2,546,886 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 19,048.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,883,409 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $247,423,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873,573 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,262,972 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,442,227,000 after purchasing an additional 1,290,324 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Trading Up 3.2 %

BX opened at $183.16 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $96.93 and a 12 month high of $183.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.94, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $157.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $138.18.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a $0.86 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on BX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.