Meridian Wealth Management LLC Acquires 467 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 18.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,004 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 467 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nwam LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth $1,238,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2,185.4% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,901,000 after purchasing an additional 18,117 shares in the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth $339,000. Biltmore Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth $232,000. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the third quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 12,290 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,882,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.6 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $199.05 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $143.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.40, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $105.51 and a 52-week high of $199.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $165.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $142.79.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on BX. UBS Group raised their target price 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. 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, November 11th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. 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.com, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $157.63.

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.