Rational Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Rational Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 20,400 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,600 shares during the quarter. Rational Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $3,517,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 111.1% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $167,825,000 after purchasing an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth about $67,472,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.2% during 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 buying an additional 348,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 2.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Blackstone from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $165.09 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a 1 year low of $115.82 and a 1 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. The stock has a market cap of $119.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.48, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.53. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $176.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $164.44.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 94.77%.

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.