1,767 Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Bought by Brooklyn Investment Group

Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,767 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $271,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total transaction of $17,561,522.88. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Price Performance

BX stock opened at $191.64 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $105.51 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.49. 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 (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 118.21%.

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.