Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC Sells 45 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC reduced its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,047 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 45 shares during the period. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,073,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth $605,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 816 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $837,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,712,493,000 after purchasing an additional 68,405 shares during the last quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Blueprint Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 39.0% during the 4th quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 481 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $493,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on BLK. UBS Group lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK opened at $950.43 on Monday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $147.56 billion, a PE ratio of 22.63, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $980.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $989.13.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,531,656.40. The trade was a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock 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.