Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. Sells 128,364 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. lowered its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 33.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 255,210 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 128,364 shares during the period. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $261,618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. boosted its holdings 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 last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 1,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,311,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marino Stram & Associates LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 3,410 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,496,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $947.48 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $978.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $990.69. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,084.22. The stock has a market cap of $147.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s 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 in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.