SGL Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

SGL Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,447 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $165.00 target price on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Blackstone from $141.00 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target 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. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Blackstone from $129.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $154.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 237 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $136.33 per share, for a total transaction of $32,310.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 37,067 shares in the company, valued at $5,053,344.11. The trade was a 0.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Private Credit Stra Blackstone acquired 1,660,000 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $15.00 per share, with a total value of $24,900,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 1,666,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,000,005. This represents a 24,898.76% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 1,660,538 shares of company stock valued at $24,981,930 over the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 1.2%

BX stock opened at $146.70 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 firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $137.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $161.71. The stock has a market cap of $107.04 billion, a PE ratio of 40.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.67. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.66 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a dividend of $0.93 per share. This represents a $3.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.