Everett Harris & Co. CA Increases Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Everett Harris & Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 266 shares during the period. Everett Harris & Co. CA’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. West Tower Group LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Tyler Stone Wealth Management bought a new stake in BlackRock during the second quarter worth about $33,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 671.4% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter worth approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLK has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $719.00 to $793.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $720.00 to $818.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of BlackRock from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $708.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, December 15th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $885.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $785.73.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $832.59 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $596.18 and a 12 month high of $845.00. The stock has a market cap of $124.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a current ratio of 3.48, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $805.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $742.68.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 12th. The asset manager reported $9.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.84 by $0.82. The business had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 30.81% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $8.93 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 39.81 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were paid a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 6th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.00. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 55.88%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,691,032.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $4,691,032.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total transaction of $765,272.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,574,225.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 100,511 shares of company stock valued at $71,864,028 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

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.