LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI Invests $249,000 in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,443 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sather Financial Group Inc raised its stake in Blackstone by 202.5% during the third quarter. Sather Financial Group Inc now owns 6,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $926,000 after acquiring an additional 4,050 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $201,000. Aljian Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth approximately $1,951,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2,185.4% in the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 18,117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,169,526 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $179,089,000 after purchasing an additional 36,343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $169.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $188.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Blackstone Stock Down 5.2 %

NYSE:BX opened at $165.00 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $119.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.70, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $180.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $156.52. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.88 and a 1 year high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.