Financial Council LLC Invests $219,000 in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Financial Council LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 231 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Natixis bought a new position in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at $390,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in BlackRock by 2.4% during the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 53,978 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $45,001,000 after buying an additional 1,253 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 9.5% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 938 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $781,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the first quarter valued at about $304,000. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 3.3% during the first quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 15,038 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,537,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,036.46 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $984.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $879.49. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $724.54 and a 12-month high of $1,068.34. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $160.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.91 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BLK. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

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.