Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Purchases 4,216 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 4.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 100,483 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,216 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $105,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,764,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,027,419,000 after acquiring an additional 387,466 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in BlackRock by 73.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,313,350 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,243,059,000 after acquiring an additional 555,098 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 10.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,206,935 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,142,340,000 after acquiring an additional 111,694 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 32.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,131,919 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,071,339,000 after acquiring an additional 279,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in BlackRock by 13.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 932,899 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $882,970,000 after acquiring an additional 108,473 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $1,115.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,171.93.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,173.98 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $1,126.36 and a 200-day moving average of $1,023.07. The firm has a market cap of $181.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.45. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $773.74 and a 1-year high of $1,182.14.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $10.36 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.39%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,120.50, for a total transaction of $19,207,611.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 61,369 shares in the company, valued at $68,763,964.50. The trade was a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total value of $16,641,167.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 263,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $296,002,472.28. This trade represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573. 1.98% of the stock is 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.