Evernest Financial Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 1,261 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Evernest Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,261 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BX. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the period. Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in Blackstone during the third quarter worth about $67,472,000. State Street Corp increased its position in Blackstone by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after acquiring an additional 348,751 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after acquiring an additional 336,308 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in Blackstone by 15,294.1% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 236,453 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $36,208,000 after acquiring an additional 234,917 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $135.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.13.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.5 %

Blackstone stock opened at $176.92 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $180.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $161.95. The firm has a market cap of $127.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.80, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.82 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Equities analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.41 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a $1.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 10th. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.26%. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.