BlackRock $BLK Shares Purchased by Stonebridge Financial Group LLC

Stonebridge Financial Group LLC boosted its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 0.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,541 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $4,764,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,764,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,027,419,000 after purchasing an additional 387,466 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in BlackRock by 73.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,313,350 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,243,059,000 after purchasing an additional 555,098 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 10.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,206,935 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,142,340,000 after purchasing an additional 111,694 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 32.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,131,919 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,071,339,000 after acquiring an additional 279,336 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 13.2% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 932,899 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $882,970,000 after acquiring an additional 108,473 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BLK. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,396.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,258.13.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,165.64 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $773.74 and a 1 year high of $1,184.13. The company has a market capitalization of $180.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1,134.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,033.55.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $10.36 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 50.39%.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total value of $13,565,933.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,267,354.71. The trade was a 4.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total transaction of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,936,571.86. The trade was a 55.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

About BlackRock

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.