Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Atlas Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX - Free Report) by 125.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,600 shares of the asset manager's stock after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the quarter. Atlas Capital Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Blackstone were worth $621,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 66,894,632 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,533,972,000 after purchasing an additional 889,286 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Blackstone by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,597,028,000 after purchasing an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,341,300 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,637,266,000 after buying an additional 444,887 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 4th quarter valued at about $974,448,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Blackstone by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,045,143 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $697,464,000 after buying an additional 113,732 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Price Performance

NYSE BX traded down $0.78 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $119.29. The stock had a trading volume of 2,325,719 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,612,040. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market cap of $87.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.34 and a 52-week high of $200.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $152.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.35.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $1.44 per share. This is a boost from Blackstone's previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.83%. Blackstone's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ruth Porat acquired 301 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $164.85 per share, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 0.82 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BX. Bank of America reduced their price target on Blackstone from $219.00 to $207.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Blackstone from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JMP Securities upgraded Blackstone from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $165.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group upgraded shares of Blackstone from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $186.00 to $129.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $161.83.

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.