Sara Bay Financial Takes Position in BlackRock $BLK

Sara Bay Financial bought a new position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 7,907 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $9,219,000. BlackRock comprises about 2.6% of Sara Bay Financial’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at about $303,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 510,826 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $483,488,000 after acquiring an additional 20,826 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 261.2% during the 1st quarter. CW Advisors LLC now owns 2,947 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,800,000 after acquiring an additional 2,131 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock 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 transaction of $13,980,480.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at $8,394,113.20. This trade represents a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Martin Small sold 1,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,043.38, for a total transaction of $1,312,572.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 6,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,478,346.42. The trade was a 16.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 1.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BLK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,280.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $1,313.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,486.00 to $1,514.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,316.18.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,059.34 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1,082.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,091.48. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. 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 $164.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.47.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.78 by ($0.23). BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 26.64%.The company had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $11.46 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.59%.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an Overweight rating, supporting demand expectations and giving BLK near-term analyst support. Morgan Stanley note
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock Canada cut management fees on several core iShares ETF portfolios (effective Dec. 18), which should help competitiveness and could lift AUM/flows in Canada. Fee cut press release
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street remains generally constructive: multiple recent buy/overweight ratings and above-consensus price targets point to continued analyst conviction in BLK’s long-term earnings power. Analyst notes summary
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock signed an MoU with Mastercard and others to promote blockchain adoption in the Middle East — a strategic partnership that’s incremental for growth but not immediately material to earnings. PYMNTS article
• Neutral Sentiment: Eni sold a 49.99% stake in its carbon capture unit to GIP (BlackRock’s infrastructure fund) giving joint control — a sign of GIP deal activity and infrastructure exposure but limited immediate impact on BLK’s public earnings. Reuters
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparative valuation pieces (e.g., IVZ vs BLK) are circulating but don’t change fundamentals; useful for allocators weighing expense/return trade-offs. Zacks comparison
• Negative Sentiment: Deutsche Bank issued a pessimistic forecast for BLK’s stock, which likely contributed to selling pressure from model/quant funds and some institutional rebalancing. Deutsche Bank note
• Negative Sentiment: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced expectations for BLK, adding to the negative analyst noise and pressuring sentiment. KBW note
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto flows: large spot-Bitcoin ETF inflows were reported (helpful) but BlackRock also moved BTC/ETH to exchanges for redemptions, sparking market volatility and headlines blaming BLK for short-term crypto declines — this fuels risk-off in ETFs and hurt sentiment. Blockonomi NewsBTC
• Negative Sentiment: Large insider selling activity has been reported recently, which can amplify downside as it raises governance/flow concerns among some investors. QuiverQuant insider summary

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.