207 Shares in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Purchased by SPC Financial Inc.

SPC Financial Inc. purchased a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 207 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Collier Financial acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.6 %

BlackRock stock opened at $967.48 on Thursday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $149.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.04, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $998.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $983.77. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.15%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BLK. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. The trade was a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 BlackRock 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 56,620 shares of company stock valued at $59,085,750 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.