Compass Ion Advisors LLC Increases Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Compass Ion Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,900 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. Compass Ion Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $4,466,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bangor Savings Bank grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. This trade represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective 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. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of BX opened at $146.11 on Wednesday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $167.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.25, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. Blackstone Inc. has a twelve month low of $115.82 and a twelve month high of $200.96.

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

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th were given a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 158.68%.

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.