Bridges Investment Management Inc. Purchases New Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 1,248 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1,474.5% during the 4th quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 866 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $149,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the last quarter. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth $467,000. Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 29,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,078,000 after acquiring an additional 1,423 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 154,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $26,627,000 after acquiring an additional 2,215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $749,000 after acquiring an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on BX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of BX opened at $158.36 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $171.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $166.83. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The stock has a market cap of $114.34 billion, a PE ratio of 43.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. 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 (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.64%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.