Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC Invests $534,000 in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Traphagen Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 521 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $534,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Simon Quick Advisors LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Simon Quick Advisors LLC now owns 352 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $361,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Red Spruce Capital LLC now owns 3,217 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,298,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Sheets Smith Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $3,697,000. MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 499 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $511,000 after buying an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proquility Private Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,972,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLK has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research 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, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. The trade was a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.7 %

BLK opened at $1,011.87 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $1,026.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $949.91. The firm has a market cap of $156.72 billion, a PE ratio of 24.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,082.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.23 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 48.57%.

BlackRock 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.