Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC Trims Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC lessened its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 9.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,469 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,506,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 3.7% during the third quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 1,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,311,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 368 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.7% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,447,000 after buying an additional 11 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock opened at $947.96 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $146.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $994.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $985.86. 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 (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of 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 shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.