Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX)

Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,398 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 102 shares during the period. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $707,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BX. Marino Stram & Associates LLC grew its position in Blackstone by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 86.2% in the fourth quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 216 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Hoxton Planning & Management LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $228,000. Cullen Investment Group LTD. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $887,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in Blackstone in the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total value of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Blackstone news, Director Joseph Baratta sold 28,852 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.05, for a total transaction of $3,694,498.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 982,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,773,399.05. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bx Buzz Ml-1 Gp Llc sold 2,509,316 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 12,802 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,102.20. 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. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Stock Performance

BX traded up $0.91 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $122.08. 1,945,297 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,652,729. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $126.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $117.50. Blackstone Inc. has a 12 month low of $79.92 and a 12 month high of $133.56. The stock has a market cap of $87.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The asset manager reported $1.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.48 billion. Blackstone had a return on equity of 17.30% and a net margin of 17.34%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.07 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 12th. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a dividend of $0.94 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 205.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler cut their price target on Blackstone from $150.00 to $146.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. TheStreet downgraded Blackstone from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Blackstone from $120.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Blackstone presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $119.92.

Blackstone 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.