Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Increases Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 3,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $3,129,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,155.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BlackRock from $1,245.00 to $1,261.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,120.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Three equities 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.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,070.08.

BlackRock Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of BLK opened at $955.50 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,082.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,030.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $939.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. The firm has a market cap of $147.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $10.91 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.