BlackRock $BLK Shares Sold by LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. lowered its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 4.1% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 795 shares during the quarter. BlackRock comprises 1.7% of LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $19,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. McLean Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 3.9% in the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 0.5% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.3% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $838,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 4.7% in the second quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 8.8% in the second quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 123 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total transaction of $20,301,321.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 19,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,617,148. This represents a 48.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total value of $16,641,167.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 263,751 shares in the company, valued at $296,002,472.28. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $990.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,213.67.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,160.75 on Friday. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,183.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,129.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,027.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.74 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 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 business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $10.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.39%.

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.