Smith Salley Wealth Management Takes $1.49 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Smith Salley Wealth Management bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 8,658 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,493,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Bangor Savings Bank increased its stake in Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth about $39,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Blackstone by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 255 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

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 value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE:BX opened at $180.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $180.73 and its 200 day moving average is $158.24. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.63 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.96 billion, a PE ratio of 61.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $192.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.56.

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.