Independence Bank of Kentucky Lowers Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Independence Bank of Kentucky cut its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 16.2% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 629 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 122 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in BlackRock by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,335,602 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,363,708,000 after buying an additional 430,524 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in BlackRock by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,174,621 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,249,634,000 after acquiring an additional 129,335 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,664,331 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,778,039,000 after acquiring an additional 41,280 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in BlackRock by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,915,197 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,463,536,000 after purchasing an additional 15,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,842,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,232,804,000 after purchasing an additional 57,862 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on BLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $780.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $770.00 to $835.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $741.00 to $781.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $750.00 to $815.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $881.00 to $888.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $767.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

BlackRock Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $706.81 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $503.12 and a 1-year high of $785.65. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $705.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $681.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 4.21 and a quick ratio of 4.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.53 billion, a PE ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.29.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The asset manager reported $9.28 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 14.29% and a net margin of 29.90%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $7.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 35.48 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, September 8th will be issued a $5.00 dividend. This represents a $20.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 58.41%.

BlackRock Company 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.