Albion Financial Group UT Purchases 454 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Albion Financial Group UT lifted its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,263 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 454 shares during the period. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $9,390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 177.7% in the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,613 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,336,000 after buying an additional 2,312 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 5.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,568,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,014,287,000 after buying an additional 74,974 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 9.5% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 7,958 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,145,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.6% during the third quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 9,923 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,415,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Finally, Legacy Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 3.0% during the third quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 766 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $495,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $915.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $844.17.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $789.12. The stock had a trading volume of 250,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 600,858. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $780.22 and a 200-day moving average of $792.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. The company has a market capitalization of $117.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $596.18 and a 12-month high of $845.00.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

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.