State Street Corp Has $6.71 Billion Stake in BlackRock $BLK

State Street Corp grew its holdings in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,264,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,752 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,705,193,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Shum Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Shum Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,183 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,336,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. First Bancorp Inc ME raised its stake in BlackRock by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. First Bancorp Inc ME now owns 321 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Rather & Kittrell Inc. raised its stake in BlackRock by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Rather & Kittrell Inc. now owns 430 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. raised its stake in BlackRock by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $808,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 23.8% during the third quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 52 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Negative Sentiment: BlackRock’s private-credit funds saw redemption requests far above the cap, and the firm is again limiting withdrawals, which could weigh on sentiment around its alternatives business. Reuters article
• Negative Sentiment: Bloomberg and other reports said BlackRock’s HPS/HLEND private-credit vehicles capped redemptions after investors sought to withdraw more than 5%, underscoring continued pressure in the funds. Bloomberg article
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock also reported buying additional Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings, and it is preparing an income-focused Bitcoin ETF, highlighting continued growth in its digital-asset franchise. Finbold article
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports that BlackRock may seek about $5 billion of SpaceX IPO shares point to strong client demand and product breadth, but this is not as immediate a driver as the redemption headlines. Reuters article

BlackRock Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,031.45 on Friday. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $917.39 and a 1-year high of $1,219.94. The company has a market cap of $160.11 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 4.09, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1,039.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1,051.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $12.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.40 by $0.13. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.40% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The company had revenue of $6.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $9.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 27.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock will post 52.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BLK. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,368.00 to $1,393.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,290.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,235.00 to $1,270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Evercore dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,140.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,238.00 to $1,105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,264.61.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total value of $9,233,627.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 210,186 shares in the company, valued at $222,082,527.60. This trade represents a 3.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total value of $35,613,645.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $242,168,583.80. The trade was a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.92% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.