Sawgrass Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,660 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 20 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,576,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Schear Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 14.2% in the third quarter. Schear Investment Advisers LLC now owns 822 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $780,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 3.7% in the third quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,627 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,292,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 99,478 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $94,455,000 after acquiring an additional 7,881 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 333.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 46,693 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $44,335,000 after acquiring an additional 35,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 63 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,047.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The company has a market cap of $155.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $969.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $870.78. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $708.75 and a 52-week high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,019.62.

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.