Grimes & Company Inc. Reduces Position in BlackRock $BLK

Grimes & Company Inc. trimmed its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 2.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 867 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 19 shares during the quarter. Grimes & Company Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $910,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 555,098 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in BlackRock by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,764,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,027,419,000 after acquiring an additional 387,466 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in BlackRock by 32.8% in 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 last quarter. Unisphere Establishment lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 839,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $794,570,000 after purchasing an additional 189,500 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 58.8% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 381,447 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $361,032,000 after purchasing an additional 141,258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $980.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,222.87.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.7%

BLK opened at $1,179.86 on Tuesday. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $773.74 and a 1 year high of $1,184.13. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $1,130.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,030.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04. The company has a market cap of $182.70 billion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released 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 net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The company 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 earned $10.36 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 263,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $296,002,472.28. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total value of $20,301,321.60. Following the sale, the director owned 19,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,617,148. The trade was a 48.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

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.