Sei Investments Co. Buys 35,500 Shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 441,877 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 35,500 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $76,188,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BX. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter worth $66,000. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter worth about $631,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 950,565 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $145,560,000 after purchasing an additional 47,607 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Blackstone by 4.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 53,408 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $8,178,000 after buying an additional 2,412 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In related news, Director Ruth Porat bought 301 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $164.85 per share, with a total value of $49,619.85. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 36,829 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,071,260.65. The trade was a 0.82 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” 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, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $134.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $148.65 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $163.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $167.28. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.82 and a 12-month high of $200.96. The company has a market capitalization of $108.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. This represents a $5.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.