Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Boosts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 15.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,012 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,621 shares during the quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,864,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BX. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 111.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $167,825,000 after buying an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at about $67,472,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,272,227,000 after purchasing an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on BX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of BX opened at $170.11 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $178.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $163.48. The stock has a market cap of $122.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 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 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.77%.

About Blackstone

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.