Meridian Wealth Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Meridian Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 18.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,004 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 467 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $460,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nwam LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $1,238,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 2,185.4% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,946 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,901,000 after buying an additional 18,117 shares during the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $339,000. Biltmore Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $232,000. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC lifted its position in Blackstone by 1.6% in the third quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 12,290 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,882,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on BX. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $134.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $157.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Blackstone from $148.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $157.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 116,448 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $120,610,146.69. The trade was a 12.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at $68,112,883.78. This represents a 9.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $199.05 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $143.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $105.51 and a 52 week high of $199.95. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $165.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $142.79.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.37 billion. Blackstone had a net margin of 19.46% and a return on equity of 17.53%. Research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 28th were issued a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.73%. This is a boost from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 118.21%.

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.