Patten Group Inc. Has $309,000 Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Patten Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 301 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 13 shares during the quarter. Patten Group Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 39.0% in the third quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 709 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $701,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.4% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,979 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,829,000 after acquiring an additional 11 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 9.1% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 34,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $33,612,000 after acquiring an additional 2,836 shares during the period. BSW Wealth Partners acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth approximately $207,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth approximately $96,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE BLK opened at $951.24 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1,000.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $983.89. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market cap of $147.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 49.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was 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 owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,117,330. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 110,620 shares of company stock worth $115,571,370. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Company 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.