Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC Takes $467,000 Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,706 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $467,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bangor Savings Bank increased its holdings in Blackstone by 187.5% during the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $161.01 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $171.77 and its 200 day moving average is $166.46. The company has a market cap of $116.25 billion, a PE ratio of 44.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.58%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.