Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. Acquires New Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Hudson Edge Investment Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,411,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,366 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,109,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $354,000. Northwest Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,934 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,570,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $854,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 93,042 shares of company stock worth $79,387,117. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $985.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $912.00 to $937.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $883.13.

BlackRock Stock Down 1.1 %

BlackRock stock traded down $9.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $866.92. 748,945 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 587,817. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $903.46. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $848.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $811.87. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $128.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $9.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.34 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 51.84%.

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.