Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Makes New Investment in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,850 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $472,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BX. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after acquiring an additional 348,751 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after acquiring an additional 336,308 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,017,000 after acquiring an additional 61,739 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,430,909 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $525,375,000 after acquiring an additional 116,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,155,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $330,006,000 after purchasing an additional 124,462 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $157.27 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $113.55 billion, a PE ratio of 43.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $172.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $165.93. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.