BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Stock Holdings Lifted by Red Spruce Capital LLC

Red Spruce Capital LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,442 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the period. BlackRock accounts for about 1.3% of Red Spruce Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Red Spruce Capital LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at about $115,000. United Bank raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 17.1% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 1,287 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $983,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,978 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 35.4% during the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,025 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $783,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 11.7% during the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,452 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,110,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. 77.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $770.00 to $835.00 in a research note on Monday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $780.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 3rd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $780.00 to $820.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $750.00 to $815.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $767.69.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock traded up $3.33 during trading on Thursday, hitting $700.56. The company had a trading volume of 70,730 shares, compared to its average volume of 625,665. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $705.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $680.92. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $503.12 and a fifty-two week high of $785.65. The company has a market cap of $104.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 4.21, a quick ratio of 4.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The asset manager reported $9.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.52 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.90% and a return on equity of 14.29%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $7.36 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 35.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $5.00 per share. This represents a $20.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 58.41%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 20,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $742.04, for a total transaction of $14,989,208.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 464,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $344,399,315. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 20,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $742.04, for a total transaction of $14,989,208.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 464,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $344,399,315. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 2,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $733.82, for a total transaction of $1,525,611.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,160 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,520,331.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.