Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 11.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,907 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $599,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth $31,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 2nd quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at about $39,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. 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. Piper Sandler cut shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.69.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $190.40. 390,175 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,382,660. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $114.88 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $175.41 and a 200-day moving average of $148.70. The company has a market cap of $137.47 billion, a PE ratio of 65.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 EPS 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 given a $0.86 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $120,610,146.69. This represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.