Princeton Global Asset Management LLC Increases Position in The Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Princeton Global Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of The Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 82,922 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 758 shares during the period. The Blackstone Group accounts for approximately 1.9% of Princeton Global Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC’s holdings in The Blackstone Group were worth $5,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BX. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of The Blackstone Group during the first quarter worth about $50,000. NEXT Financial Group Inc lifted its stake in shares of The Blackstone Group by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. NEXT Financial Group Inc now owns 6,449 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of The Blackstone Group by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,935 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 410 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT purchased a new position in shares of The Blackstone Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $6,279,000. Finally, Naples Global Advisors LLC grew its holdings in The Blackstone Group by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Naples Global Advisors LLC now owns 29,190 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,524,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 59.77% of the company’s stock.

Get The Blackstone Group alerts:

In other news, major shareholder Holdings L.P. Blackstone III acquired 42,425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $34.93 per share, with a total value of $1,481,905.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Blackstone Bdc Holdings Llc bought 997,940 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 7th. The shares were bought at an average price of $25.00 per share, with a total value of $24,948,500.00. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price objective on shares of The Blackstone Group from $72.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of The Blackstone Group from $68.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 26th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of The Blackstone Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 12th. Oppenheimer raised shares of The Blackstone Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of The Blackstone Group from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 28th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $66.79.

BX stock traded down $1.06 on Tuesday, hitting $68.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 27,978 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,781,587. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $66.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.94. The Blackstone Group Inc. has a 1 year low of $33.00 and a 1 year high of $72.10. The stock has a market cap of $46.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.49 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 26th. The asset manager reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $3.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 73.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Blackstone Group Inc. will post 2.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 8th were issued a dividend of $0.7175 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 5th. This represents a $2.87 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.19%. This is a positive change from The Blackstone Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The Blackstone Group’s payout ratio is currently 166.23%.

The Blackstone Group Company Profile

The Blackstone Group 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.

Further Reading: What Is Dividend Yield and How Do You Calculate It?

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE:BX).

Receive News & Ratings for The Blackstone Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for The Blackstone Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.