Valley National Advisers Inc. Acquires 142 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Valley National Advisers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 19,321 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 142 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,538,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% during the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $931,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Fragasso Group Inc. now owns 3,255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $428,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $435,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FFT Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 219 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 6th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $119.48 per share, for a total transaction of $26,166.12. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 34,445 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,115,488.60. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.2 %

BX stock traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $123.40. 2,102,444 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,471,180. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $122.35 and its 200-day moving average is $124.45. The company has a market cap of $88.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.60, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $88.59 and a 12 month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 117.31%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $125.00 target price (down previously from $129.00) on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.65.

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.