Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 22.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,563 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 4,469 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,235,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sather Financial Group Inc increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,050 shares during the period. Portside Wealth Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at about $201,000. Aljian Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $1,951,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2,185.4% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after acquiring an additional 18,117 shares during the period. Finally, Wealthcare Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,102,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price target on Blackstone from $192.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Thirteen investment 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 stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE:BX opened at $166.81 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.95, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.53. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $165.04.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.45%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

About Blackstone

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.