Commonwealth Financial Services LLC Buys Shares of 206 BlackRock $BLK

Commonwealth Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 206 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 73.2% during the 1st 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. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% during the 1st 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 32.8% during the 1st 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. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $231,000. Finally, Unisphere Establishment increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 29.2% during the 1st quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 839,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $794,570,000 after acquiring an additional 189,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $980.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,160.00 to $1,265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,258.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total value of $20,301,321.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 19,205 shares in the company, valued at $21,617,148. This represents a 48.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total value of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,936,571.86. This represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573 in the last 90 days. 1.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Down 3.0%

BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $1,134.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,035.09. The company has a market cap of $175.31 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.45. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $773.74 and a 1 year high of $1,184.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.39%.

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.