Soltis Investment Advisors LLC Has $5.68 Million Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Soltis Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 649.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 32,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,561 shares during the quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,683,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BX. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after purchasing an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 111.1% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $167,825,000 after buying an additional 512,165 shares in the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $67,472,000. State Street Corp raised its position 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 2.5 %

BX opened at $170.11 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $122.82 billion, a PE ratio of 46.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a 50 day moving average of $178.36 and a 200 day moving average of $163.62. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.82 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

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.