BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) traded down 1.1% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $784.52 and last traded at $786.01. 57,772 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 602,281 shares. The stock had previously closed at $794.39.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 target price (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average of $777.24 and a 200 day moving average of $792.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The firm had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $7.93 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $1,812,920,000. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 57.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,514,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,853,517,000 after buying an additional 1,279,952 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,918,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,181,346,000 after buying an additional 749,654 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 77,524.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 641,955 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,211,390,000 after buying an additional 641,128 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 24,171.5% in the first quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 416,014 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $346,831,000 after purchasing an additional 414,300 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.