Lane & Associates LLC Buys 33 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Lane & Associates LLC raised its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 7.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 496 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the period. Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,990,052,000 after buying an additional 292,017 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 11.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,354,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,630,127,000 after acquiring an additional 435,358 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 57.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,514,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,853,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279,952 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 2,471,621 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,006,490,000 after purchasing an additional 58,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $1,812,920,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. 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. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Citigroup raised their price objective on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” 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 company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $883.47.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $877.94 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $130.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $903.46. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $850.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $812.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $9.28 EPS. Analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.34 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total transaction of $22,529,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,407,041.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,042 shares of company stock valued at $79,387,117 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.