OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC Grows Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,433 shares during the quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth $27,000. Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $133.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $181.36 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $102.79 and a 1-year high of $184.34. The firm has a market cap of $130.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $160.51 and a 200-day moving average of $139.60.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.86 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.