Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires 805,604 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2,057.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 805,604 shares during the quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC owned about 0.12% of Blackstone worth $145,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Sather Financial Group Inc raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 202.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter valued at $201,000. Aljian Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,951,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2,185.4% in the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 18,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth about $2,102,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $159.26 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.99 billion, a PE ratio of 43.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $172.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $166.07.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is 158.68%.

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.