LRI Investments LLC Acquires Shares of 622 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 622 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $491,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its holdings in BlackRock by 208.3% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total value of $22,529,340.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,407,041.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total transaction of $22,529,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,407,041.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,978 shares of company stock valued at $54,692,570 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $872.29.

BlackRock Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE BLK traded up $19.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $856.20. 555,814 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 593,194. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $596.18 and a 1-year high of $857.65. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $795.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $795.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.23 billion, a PE ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.53%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $9.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.