Verity & Verity LLC Takes $2.02 Million Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Verity & Verity LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 11,711 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,019,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% during 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 grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% during 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 lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 6,266,207 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $775,758,000 after purchasing an additional 141,616 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 15,357.3% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after buying an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,931,411 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,017,000 after acquiring an additional 61,739 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $180.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $180.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.84. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.63 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $129.96 billion, a PE ratio of 61.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Blackstone from $175.00 to $174.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.56.

Blackstone Company 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.