Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,146 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 555 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after purchasing an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $775,758,000 after purchasing an additional 141,616 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,017,000 after buying an additional 61,739 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on BX shares. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $175.00 to $174.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.56.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX opened at $175.12 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $126.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.18, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.88 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 EPS for the current year.

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.