Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Acquires 2,070 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 25.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,337 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,070 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Marino Stram & Associates LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. FFT Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $667,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $484,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. grew its position in Blackstone by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bourgeon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% during the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $121.21 on Tuesday. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $80.05 and a 52-week high of $133.56. The company has a 50 day moving average of $125.06 and a 200 day moving average of $119.25. The company has a market capitalization of $86.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.83 dividend. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 117.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.