Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co Lowers Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co trimmed its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,940 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 210 shares during the period. BlackRock comprises 0.7% of Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Indiana Trust & Investment Management Co’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,989,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth $26,000. Collier Financial acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 100.0% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 110,190 shares of company stock valued at $115,163,141 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of 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, Barclays cut their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of BLK opened at $988.02 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $1,024.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $971.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The company has a market capitalization of $153.03 billion, a PE ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. BlackRock’s dividend 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.