FORA Capital LLC Raises Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

FORA Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 35,799 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,289 shares during the period. FORA Capital LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $5,482,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Blackstone by 232.8% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 810 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in Blackstone by 15.8% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 17,250 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,266,000 after buying an additional 2,358 shares in the last quarter. LBP AM SA purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the first quarter worth $929,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone in the first quarter valued at $290,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone during the 1st quarter worth about $632,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total transaction of $7,433,289.06. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. The trade was a 9.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.81, for a total value of $17,561,522.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 799,749 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. This trade represents a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of Blackstone stock traded up $1.52 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $193.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 190,450 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,413,347. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $139.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.86, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.49. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $167.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $106.00 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.53% and a net margin of 19.46%. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.37 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Investors of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a dividend of $0.86 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on Blackstone from $155.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Blackstone from $164.00 to $177.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Blackstone from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $149.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Blackstone from $112.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $157.63.

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.