James J. Burns & Company LLC Has $478,000 Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

James J. Burns & Company LLC raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 15.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 369 shares during the period. James J. Burns & Company LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $478,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mather Group LLC. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 9,319 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,607,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $212,000. Childress Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Childress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,815 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $313,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 201,924 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $34,816,000 after acquiring an additional 1,536 shares during the period. Finally, Rheos Capital Works Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Rheos Capital Works Inc. now owns 106,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,277,000 after purchasing an additional 3,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $173.55 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $180.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $162.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $125.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 94.77%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.