Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Lowers Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 153,519 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,235 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $26,470,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bangor Savings Bank lifted its stake in Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.7 %

BX stock opened at $148.72 on Friday. 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $163.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.04. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $115.82 and a 12 month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $108.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.87%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 158.68%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company 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.