Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) Position Reduced by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,502 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,620 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $10,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BX. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 111.1% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $167,825,000 after purchasing an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth about $67,472,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after acquiring an additional 336,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,406,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $215,390,000 after acquiring an additional 199,209 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $157.52 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $113.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.39, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $171.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.01. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.