Sunburst Financial Group LLC Purchases New Shares in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sunburst Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 198 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Collier Financial bought a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter worth $37,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a report on Sunday, February 9th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $980.48 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $1,021.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $971.97. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $9.66 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. 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 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 49.62%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total transaction of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. The trade was a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 110,190 shares of company stock valued at $115,163,141. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.