Riverwater Partners LLC Invests $517,000 in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Riverwater Partners LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 504 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $517,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Pioneer Trust Bank N A OR grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Pioneer Trust Bank N A OR now owns 9,787 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,033,000 after purchasing an additional 510 shares during the last quarter. Hurlow Wealth Management Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $439,000. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC now owns 257 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $263,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co. acquired a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $2,158,000. Finally, Grant Private Wealth Management Inc acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $820,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Saturday, March 29th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,130.85.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $822.38 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $127.68 billion, a PE ratio of 19.58, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $968.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $991.65. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $9.66 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

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.