Eagle Ridge Investment Management Cuts Stake in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management reduced its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,164 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 93 shares during the quarter. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $373,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BX. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 15,357.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,201,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,433,220,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,971 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone by 111.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 973,348 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $167,825,000 after acquiring an additional 512,165 shares during the last quarter. Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Blackstone during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $67,472,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Blackstone by 1.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 30,020,426 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,597,028,000 after buying an additional 348,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Blackstone by 2.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,896,413 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,272,227,000 after buying an additional 336,308 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $192.00 to $186.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Blackstone from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Blackstone from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $149.00 to $230.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $172.38.

Blackstone Stock Performance

Shares of BX stock opened at $174.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $125.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.07, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $179.07 and its 200 day moving average is $163.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. Blackstone Inc. has a 52-week low of $115.82 and a 52-week high of $200.96.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The asset manager reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.19. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.99% and a return on equity of 19.58%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 10th will be paid a $1.44 dividend. This represents a $5.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.30%. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.86. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. Blackstone’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 158.68%.

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.