DE Burlo Group Inc. Grows Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

DE Burlo Group Inc. raised its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 42.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 137,253 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 40,700 shares during the period. Blackstone makes up approximately 3.2% of DE Burlo Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. DE Burlo Group Inc.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $23,665,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,533,972,000 after buying an additional 889,286 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,637,266,000 after purchasing an additional 444,887 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Blackstone by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,987,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,032,400,000 after purchasing an additional 371,677 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter worth about $974,448,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% during the 4th 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 last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on BX shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Blackstone from $160.00 to $139.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Blackstone from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $137.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $154.82.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the purchase, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $132.80 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $163.98. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The asset manager reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.95 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.98 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be given a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 112.05%.

Blackstone Profile

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.