BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Shares Sold by Vestor Capital LLC

Vestor Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 103 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15 shares during the quarter. Vestor Capital LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $84,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $365,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the period. Spreng Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the period. Finally, Inscription Capital LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 1,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.4 %

BlackRock stock traded up $11.19 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $789.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 654,796 shares, compared to its average volume of 621,527. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $795.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $768.60. The company has a market cap of $117.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $7.93 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on BLK shares. TD Cowen upgraded BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.42.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total transaction of $765,272.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,574,225.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total transaction of $765,272.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,574,225.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 67,987 shares of company stock worth $55,353,400. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock 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.