Sunbelt Securities Inc. Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) by 65.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,943 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,560 shares during the quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $330,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BX. Whalerock Point Partners LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $282,571,000. Mach 1 Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $25,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $26,000. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont grew its position in Blackstone by 133.3% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 350 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. 62.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $87.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $61.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.52. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.72 and a 1 year high of $132.93. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $88.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The asset manager reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.43% and a net margin of 20.52%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.91 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 3rd. This represents a $3.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 153.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 205,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.00, for a total transaction of $6,781,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,844,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $324,859,524. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III sold 205,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.00, for a total value of $6,781,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 9,844,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $324,859,524. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Holdings I/Ii Gp L. Blackstone sold 28,562,652 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.71, for a total value of $248,780,698.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 57,028 shares in the company, valued at approximately $496,713.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,532,616 shares of company stock valued at $1,726,902,967 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 30th. CICC Research started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Thursday, January 12th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $86.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $104.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $86.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.33.

Blackstone Company Profile

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Blackstone, Inc engages in the provision of investment and fund management services. It operates through the following segments: Real Estate, Private Equity, Credit and Insurance, and Hedge Fund Solutions. The Real Estate segment includes management of opportunistic real estate funds, Core+ real estate funds, high-yield real estate debt funds, and liquid real estate debt funds.