Atlas Brown Inc. Purchases 115 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Atlas Brown Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,526 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Bangor Savings Bank increased its stake in Blackstone by 187.5% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $39,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 32.1% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its stake in Blackstone by 57.7% in the 3rd quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 276 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BX. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $188.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup raised their price target on Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Blackstone Trading Down 5.0 %

BX stock traded down $8.64 during trading on Friday, hitting $165.33. The company had a trading volume of 3,811,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,412,955. The firm has a market capitalization of $119.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.81, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $114.88 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $180.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $156.25.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a dividend of $0.86 per share. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available 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.