Bank OZK Decreases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Bank OZK lowered its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 193 shares during the quarter. Bank OZK’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at $37,000. Principal Securities Inc. raised its position in BlackRock by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 5,292 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,024,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,766 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,525,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Americana Partners LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Americana Partners LLC now owns 761 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $723,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 3,220 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,057,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total transaction of $56,485,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. The trade was a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 3.7 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $979.44 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1,003.74 and a 200 day moving average of $980.92. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $151.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

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.