Warm Springs Advisors Inc. Purchases Shares of 727 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Warm Springs Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 727 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $745,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,712,493,000 after buying an additional 68,405 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in BlackRock by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,097,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,200,450,000 after buying an additional 93,844 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,072,787,000 after buying an additional 190,188 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,356,357,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 12,430 shares of company stock worth $11,237,249 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on 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. TD Cowen decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded BlackRock to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,065.00 to $1,035.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK opened at $964.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $149.43 billion, a PE ratio of 22.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $920.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $977.70. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $752.30 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $9.81 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.63%.

About BlackRock

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.