Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Purchases 4,989 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 20,567 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,989 shares during the quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC now owns 5,676 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $743,000 after buying an additional 1,191 shares in the last quarter. TCG Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at $203,000. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 2,397 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $314,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. First National Trust Co raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. First National Trust Co now owns 8,721 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,142,000 after buying an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AJOVista LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $122,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BX. UBS Group boosted their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Oppenheimer downgraded Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $144.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX traded up $3.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $121.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,399,241 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,688,110. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $80.05 and a 1 year high of $133.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $86.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.83, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.52. The business’s fifty day moving average is $125.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $119.25.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The business had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.97 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 117.31%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

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

Blackstone 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.