Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Buys 77 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 841 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 77 shares during the quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $882,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Welch Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $797,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. grew its stake in BlackRock by 2.7% during the second quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $357,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. CNB Bank increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 103 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% during 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 during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Oklahoma increased its position in BlackRock by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total value of $13,980,480.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at $8,394,113.20. This represents a 62.48% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,120.50, for a total transaction of $19,207,611.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 61,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,763,964.50. This trade represents a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,138.60 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,139.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,051.77. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The company has a market cap of $176.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.28, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.78 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $11.46 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. Loop Capital set a $1,255.00 target price on BlackRock in a report on Tuesday. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Argus lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,362.00 to $1,486.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,299.29.

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.