Slagle Financial LLC Sells 280 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Slagle Financial LLC reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 19.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,189 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 280 shares during the period. Slagle Financial LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% during the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on BX shares. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. UBS Group raised Blackstone from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.13.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $144.81 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $161.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $167.38. The company has a market capitalization of $105.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.89, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96.

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, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.98%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value 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. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company 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.