Dana Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New $532,000 Investment in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 3,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $532,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Bangor Savings Bank boosted its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Berbice Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA purchased a new position in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

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

Blackstone Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BX opened at $145.12 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $169.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.98, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.55. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.82 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, beating 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, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.97%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 158.68%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on BX shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $174.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.38.

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.