Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Buys 903 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 63,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 903 shares during the quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $65,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 83 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its stake in BlackRock by 4.7% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 425 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $404,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its holdings in BlackRock by 6.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,217 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.2% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 1,891 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,796,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter worth $2,555,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $980.48 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,021.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $971.97. The stock has a market cap of $151.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 earnings per share for the current 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 2.13%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total transaction of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BLK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. 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 report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

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.