Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 5.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,829 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,799,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 58.1% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 6,734 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,031,000 after buying an additional 2,474 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 3,676 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Blackstone by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 17,238 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,640,000 after purchasing an additional 3,126 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at about $631,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX opened at $148.65 on Friday. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.82 and a 12 month high of $200.96. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $108.43 billion, a PE ratio of 40.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $163.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $167.08.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised shares of Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

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.