Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 102 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,398 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 102 shares during the quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $707,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 30.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 62,091,903 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,652,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,396,655 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 22,495,670 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,668,954,000 after buying an additional 798,734 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.1% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,157,334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,419,249,000 after buying an additional 332,962 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 13.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,825,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,588,433,000 after buying an additional 1,744,652 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 7.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,925,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $695,952,000 after buying an additional 522,561 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last ninety days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX traded up $0.91 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $122.08. 1,945,297 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,652,729. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $79.92 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $126.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.50.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.48 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a $0.94 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 2nd. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 205.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Blackstone from $95.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Blackstone from $120.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $119.92.

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.