Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Buys 1,250 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 33.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,019 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,250 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $865,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BX. Bouchey Financial Group Ltd bought a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter worth approximately $219,000. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Blackstone by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC now owns 116,663 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $20,115,000 after acquiring an additional 4,335 shares during the last quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. grew its holdings in Blackstone by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Linscomb Wealth Inc. now owns 7,111 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 122,080 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $21,049,000 after purchasing an additional 12,360 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2,057.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 844,755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $145,653,000 after purchasing an additional 805,604 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “hold” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $168.00 to $179.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX opened at $161.01 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $171.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.23. Blackstone Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.82 and a 1-year high of $200.96. The company has a market cap of $116.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.35, a PEG 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were paid a $1.44 dividend. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.58%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is presently 158.68%.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat purchased 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction of $49,619.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares in the company, valued at $6,071,260.65. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

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.