West Financial Advisors LLC Buys 590 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

West Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 335.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 766 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 590 shares during the quarter. West Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after acquiring an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after purchasing an additional 336,308 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $775,758,000 after buying an additional 141,616 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $602,017,000 after acquiring an additional 61,739 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BX. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $199.00 to $192.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $175.00 to $174.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.56.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $175.12 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $180.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $157.59. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $114.88 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $126.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.18, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.45 earnings per share for the current year.

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.