SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. Sells 2,420 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. cut its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,420 shares during the period. BlackRock makes up 1.5% of SOA Wealth Advisors LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $13,596,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BLK. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 23.1% during 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 last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 145,500.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,456 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,378,000 after purchasing an additional 1,455 shares during the last quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 107.2% during the first quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 2,327 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% during the first quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 13,046 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,348,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total value of $13,565,933.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,267,354.71. The trade was a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total value of $20,301,321.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,205 shares in the company, valued at $21,617,148. This trade represents a 48.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. 1.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE BLK opened at $1,166.35 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $773.74 and a twelve month high of $1,183.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $180.61 billion, a PE ratio of 28.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $1,127.65 and its 200 day moving average is $1,024.07.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $10.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on BLK shares. Argus reissued a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Zacks Research cut BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,018.00 to $1,093.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $959.00 to $1,210.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,171.93.

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.