Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Raises Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 6.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,485 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,054 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,524,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:BX opened at $180.88 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $104.39 and a 52 week high of $184.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $161.40 and a 200 day moving average of $140.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $130.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.34, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

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.