Argent Capital Management LLC Has $97.02 Million Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Argent Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 562,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 11,061 shares during the period. Blackstone comprises about 2.7% of Argent Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Argent Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $97,016,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 3.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 58,777 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,277,000 after buying an additional 2,002 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,254,342 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $155,288,000 after buying an additional 142,026 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 6.2% in the second quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 2,642 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $327,000 after buying an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the second quarter worth about $202,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 7.6% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 84,898 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,258,000 after buying an additional 5,962 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BX shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $125.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Blackstone from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blackstone presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.56.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In other Blackstone news, insider John G. Finley sold 42,249 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.94, for a total value of $7,433,289.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 387,137 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $175.12 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $180.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $157.59. The company has a market capitalization of $126.44 billion, a PE ratio of 60.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Blackstone Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.88 and a 52 week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The asset manager reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.37 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.43 earnings per share for the current year.

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.