Planning Directions Inc. Purchases Shares of 1,541 Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Planning Directions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 1,541 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone during the second quarter valued at $27,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Blackstone in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This trade represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 799,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BX has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Blackstone from $171.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Blackstone from $169.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $157.63.

Blackstone Stock Performance

NYSE BX opened at $181.41 on Monday. Blackstone Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $102.79 and a fifty-two week high of $184.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $161.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $140.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $130.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.49.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.21%.

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.