New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Lowers Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lowered its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 34,300 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Bangor Savings Bank lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 187.5% in the fourth quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 161 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Kieckhefer Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on BX shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:BX opened at $165.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $119.20 billion, a PE ratio of 45.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $176.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $164.11. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a return on equity of 19.58% and a net margin of 20.99%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.49%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 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.