Front Row Advisors LLC Cuts Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Front Row Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,944 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. BlackRock accounts for 1.4% of Front Row Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Front Row Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $4,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. May Hill Capital LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $274,000. PFC Capital Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $399,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,072,787,000 after buying an additional 190,188 shares in the last quarter. Gibson Capital LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 23.5% during the fourth quarter. Gibson Capital LLC now owns 263 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 145,012 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $148,656,000 after acquiring an additional 4,299 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a report on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $947.45 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $977.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $992.68. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $147.09 billion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.62%.

BlackRock Company 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.