Quilter Plc Purchases Shares of 1,180 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Quilter Plc acquired a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,180 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in 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 valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 111.1% in 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 period. Castleark Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at approximately $67,472,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Blackstone by 1.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,272,227,000 after purchasing an additional 336,308 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen raised 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Down 2.5 %

BX opened at $170.11 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.82 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $122.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.86, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. 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 business has a fifty day moving average price of $178.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $163.62.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be given 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 dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.77%.

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.