West Family Investments Inc. Purchases New Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

West Family Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,795 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price target on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $184.87 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $163.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $141.27. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $104.39 and a 12 month high of $186.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.53, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’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 owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’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 owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.