Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Shares Sold by Waterfront Wealth Inc.

Waterfront Wealth Inc. cut its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,800 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Waterfront Wealth Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,862,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 50.5% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 144,781 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,170,000 after purchasing an additional 48,601 shares during the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its position in Blackstone by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 4,949 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $758,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in Blackstone by 27.1% in the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 5,911 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 47.7% in the 3rd quarter. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 27,078 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,147,000 after purchasing an additional 8,749 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on BX shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $192.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $163.83 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.03. The company has a market cap of $118.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. 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. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now 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 acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone 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.