Blume Capital Management Inc. Decreases Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Blume Capital Management Inc. lowered its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 210 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 29 shares during the period. Blume Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 138,682.5% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after acquiring an additional 633,779 shares during the last quarter. Amundi purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth about $528,792,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth about $343,976,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $330,662,000. Finally, National Pension Service bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $322,097,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. UBS Group boosted their target price 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $900.50 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $139.81 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average of $985.45 and a two-hundred day moving average of $985.29. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 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%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.