Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Acquired by Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC raised its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 86.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,727 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,973 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,850,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hilltop National Bank boosted its position 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 worth $2,241,000 after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 1.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,205 shares in the last quarter. Weybosset Research & Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $224,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 232.1% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 279 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Bank N.A. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 11,202 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,931,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $188.00 to $195.00 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 4.9 %

Blackstone stock traded down $8.53 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $165.44. The stock had a trading volume of 1,842,715 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,143,511. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $180.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.25. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.88 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $119.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.