HighTower Advisors LLC Buys New Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

HighTower Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 85,751 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $87,904,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 138,682.5% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after acquiring an additional 633,779 shares in the last quarter. Amundi acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $528,792,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $343,976,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $330,662,000. Finally, National Pension Service acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $322,097,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on BLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $909.96 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $987.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $985.88. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market cap of $141.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $9.66 EPS. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

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.