BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Shares Sold by Lord Abbett & CO. LLC

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lowered its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 95,402 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15,605 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC owned about 0.06% of BlackRock worth $97,798,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $263,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA grew its holdings in BlackRock by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 1,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 368 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $377,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Marino Stram & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 3,410 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,496,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. TD Cowen cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $950.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $916.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $142.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $923.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $983.77. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $748.02 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. 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 quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $9.81 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 12,430 shares of company stock valued at $12,838,649. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.