Stamos Capital Partners L.P. Invests $3.73 Million in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Stamos Capital Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,640 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,731,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. Invst LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 2.2% in the third quarter. Invst LLC now owns 2,435 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,312,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Wealthquest Corp bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Tudor Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $399,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 31.8% in the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 791 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $751,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BLK. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays dropped their price target on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $950.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,096.92.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of BLK opened at $879.39 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $942.05 and its 200 day moving average is $987.97. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month high of $1,084.22. The company has a market capitalization of $136.53 billion, a PE ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.81 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 dividend yield of 2.37%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

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.