Opinicus Capital Inc. Buys New Shares in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Opinicus Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 16,626 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,177,000. Blackstone accounts for 2.2% of Opinicus Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. Marino Stram & Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the period. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Mayfair Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $484,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Hartford Financial Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Hartford Financial Management Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc raised its stake in Blackstone by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 39,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Blackstone from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Citigroup cut Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $116.00 to $124.00 in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Oppenheimer lowered Blackstone from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Argus increased their price target on Blackstone from $133.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TheStreet lowered Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.65.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE BX traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $122.49. 2,962,718 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,161,162. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $79.92 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $125.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $118.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a market capitalization of $87.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.27, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.51.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The asset manager reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.98. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.33% and a net margin of 20.84%. The firm’s revenue was up 166.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.77 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 6th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.83 per share. This represents a $3.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 132.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total transaction of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.10, for a total value of $27,853,407.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,802 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,102.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider John G. Finley sold 49,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.93, for a total value of $6,268,570.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 393,143 shares in the company, valued at $50,294,783.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,587,168 shares of company stock valued at $37,816,476 over the last three months. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.