BlackRock $BLK Shares Purchased by Welch Group LLC

Welch Group LLC boosted its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 76.5% during the 1st quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% during the 1st quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 200.0% during the 2nd quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 27 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,252.00 to $1,301.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,396.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,221.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $980.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,258.56.

BlackRock Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,184.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $1,134.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,035.56. The company has a market capitalization of $175.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.40 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $10.36 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.8%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.39%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 61,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,763,964.50. This represents a 21.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total value of $13,565,933.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,267,354.71. This trade represents a 4.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

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.