Park Avenue Securities LLC Boosts Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 7.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 647 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $7,539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Knuff & Co LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 48.1% in the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 404 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $328,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.4% in the first quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,007 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $840,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $885,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MONECO Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $220,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen dropped their target price 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. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $872.29.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK traded down $1.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $839.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 718,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 611,107. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $885.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $805.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $798.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.80 billion, a PE ratio of 21.76, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 32.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $9.28 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.23 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid 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 2.43%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, 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 value of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 68,509 shares of company stock valued at $55,981,794 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.