Essex LLC Sells 66 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Essex LLC reduced its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,127 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 66 shares during the period. Essex LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% during the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Kieckhefer Group LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 255 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BX opened at $170.11 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $122.82 billion, a PE ratio of 46.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $178.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $163.48. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $115.82 and a fifty-two week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (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 analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $1.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.39%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 94.77%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on BX. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $172.38.

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.