Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 306 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Hills Bank & Trust Co cut its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,533 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 306 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $2,506,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after acquiring an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 2.3% during 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,045,143 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $697,464,000 after buying an additional 113,732 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,430,909 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $525,375,000 after acquiring an additional 116,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,155,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $330,006,000 after purchasing an additional 124,462 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. 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 has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $141.01 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $102.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $165.90 and its 200 day moving average is $166.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.