Arlington Financial Advisors LLC Acquires 456 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Arlington Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 10.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,759 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 456 shares during the quarter. Arlington Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $3,968,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 208.3% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK traded up $6.19 on Friday, reaching $787.32. 769,459 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 564,991. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $117.00 billion, a PE ratio of 20.01, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.34. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $779.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $793.03. The company has a current ratio of 5.32, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $7.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

BlackRock 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.