BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Shares Sold by Beacon Financial Group

Beacon Financial Group trimmed its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,488 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 289 shares during the quarter. Beacon Financial Group’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,651,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BLK. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 85.2% during the third quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 313 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 83 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its stake in BlackRock by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 479 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. CX Institutional grew its position in BlackRock by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 6.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,217 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock valued at $115,163,141. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Sunday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE BLK opened at $988.02 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The company has a market capitalization of $153.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,024.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $971.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $9.66 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 48.57%.

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.