Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Verdence Capital Advisors LLC

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 8,205 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 205 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,415,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 2,057.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $145,653,000 after buying an additional 805,604 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 111.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $167,825,000 after buying an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $67,472,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BX. TD Cowen raised Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:BX opened at $152.08 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $170.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.84.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.79%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate 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.