BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Short Interest Down 7.6% in July

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,570,000 shares, a decline of 7.6% from the June 30th total of 1,700,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 583,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 66,978 shares of company stock valued at $54,692,570. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $1,812,920,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in BlackRock by 57.3% during 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 period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in BlackRock by 23.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 749,654 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 77,524.5% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 641,955 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,211,390,000 after acquiring an additional 641,128 shares during the period. Finally, Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 24,171.5% in the 1st quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 416,014 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $346,831,000 after purchasing an additional 414,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Argus increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $872.29.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock traded down $11.08 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $865.42. 586,544 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 606,749. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $799.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $797.24. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $885.10. The firm has a market cap of $128.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.96 by $0.40. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.28 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 41.23 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.84%.

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.