Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Acquires 299 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 14.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,368 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 299 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $439,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Country Club Bank boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 11,055 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,902,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 29.9% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 90,537 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $15,686,000 after acquiring an additional 20,849 shares during the period. Y.D. More Investments Ltd boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 2,343 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $404,000 after purchasing an additional 544 shares in the last quarter. Osprey Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Osprey Private Wealth LLC now owns 13,175 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,272,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Spirit of America Management Corp NY grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Spirit of America Management Corp NY now owns 13,100 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,259,000 after buying an additional 1,350 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of 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 boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $174.99 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $179.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $163.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.21, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.82 and a one year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.86 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a $1.44 dividend. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 94.77%.

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.