Venturi Wealth Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 43.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,088 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,237 shares during the quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $705,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BX. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 111.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $167,825,000 after buying an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the third quarter worth $67,472,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Blackstone by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 2.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Blackstone from $192.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of BX stock opened at $166.81 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $174.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $165.04. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The firm has a market cap of $120.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 158.68%.

Blackstone Company 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.