Plato Investment Management Ltd Purchases Shares of 3,645 BlackRock $BLK

Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 3,645 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,484,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Birchbrook Inc. purchased a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,260.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Monday, August 10th. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Zacks Research raised BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,298.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.06.

More BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure financing could create a major growth opportunity. BlackRock is among the financial firms working with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and other partners to mobilize more than $500 billion for data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure. The initiative could generate fees from asset management, private credit and structured-finance products while broadening BlackRock’s role beyond traditional investing. NVIDIA’s $500 Billion GPU Financing Deal Fuels Path Toward $270
• Positive Sentiment: Scale and asset growth remain key strengths. Reports highlight approximately $15.3 trillion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year AUM increase and improving profit margins. Continued growth in higher-margin ETFs and other products could support earnings and long-term shareholder returns. Larry Fink’s BlackRock Just Crossed $15.3 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock-affiliated investors reportedly sold more than $16 million of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Dartmouth’s holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and other crypto ETFs declined in value. The developments reflect weaker crypto prices and could signal modest pressure on digital-asset flows, but they do not represent a direct sale of BlackRock’s corporate holdings. BlackRock ends the week dumping millions worth of these 2 cryptocurrencies
• Negative Sentiment: Competition is intensifying in ETFs. Corgi Invest plans to challenge BlackRock with a broad, low-fee lineup, while Goldman Sachs’ planned acquisition of NEOS would strengthen a rival Bitcoin income ETF platform.
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm is investigating possible securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds. The announcement is only an investigation—not a filed finding of wrongdoing—but it adds reputational and legal uncertainty. Rosen investor rights investigation

BlackRock Stock Down 0.1%

BLK opened at $1,172.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $917.39 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.42. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,053.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,042.51.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The business had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $12.05 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 55.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.78%.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.