Financial Counselors Inc. Has $1.31 Million Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Financial Counselors Inc. increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,984 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 38,487 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,039,000 after buying an additional 1,028 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $359,000. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $226,000. Executive Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 115.9% in the fourth quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,910 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $774,000 after purchasing an additional 3,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 40,615 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,317,000 after purchasing an additional 4,913 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total transaction of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at $142,102.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $123.51 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $126.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $117.26. The firm has a market cap of $88.27 billion, a PE ratio of 67.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.51. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.92 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.48 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 17.34% and a return on equity of 17.30%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were given a dividend of $0.94 per share. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the topic of several research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.92.

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.