PDS Planning Inc Acquires New Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

PDS Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,699 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. PFG Advisors bought a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter worth approximately $226,000. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. raised its position in Blackstone by 2.7% in the third quarter. Garrison Bradford & Associates Inc. now owns 66,201 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,093,000 after acquiring an additional 1,757 shares during the period. Wagner Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.9% in the third quarter. Wagner Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,788 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 5.1% in the third quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 9,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $966,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Blackstone by 21.4% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 4,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 868 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,349,313. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Sunday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ruth Porat acquired 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $127.08 per share, for a total transaction of $29,482.56. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 34,225 shares in the company, valued at $4,349,313. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 2,587,168 shares of company stock worth $37,816,476 in the last 90 days. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup cut shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $127.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.94.

Blackstone Price Performance

Blackstone stock opened at $124.22 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $126.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $118.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $88.77 billion, a PE ratio of 43.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.92 and a 12-month high of $133.56.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.98. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 17.33%. The firm had revenue of $3.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 166.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.8 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.83 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.67%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 132.86%.

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.