Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Sells 139 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. cut its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 953 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 139 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $977,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Collier Financial purchased a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $947.48 on Friday. 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. The company has a market cap of $147.10 billion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $978.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $991.44.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for 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 revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $9.66 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. 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. Citigroup increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

About BlackRock

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.