Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. Acquires 6,137 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 155.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,078 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 6,137 shares during the period. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $10,331,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 534 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 11 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 23,436 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,024,000 after purchasing an additional 2,830 shares in the last quarter. United Bank grew its position in BlackRock by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. United Bank now owns 1,258 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,290,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $615,000. Finally, American Money Management LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. American Money Management LLC now owns 7,551 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,741,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $947.45 on Tuesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The company’s 50-day moving average is $977.53 and its 200 day moving average is $992.68. 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 capitalization of $147.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change 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 payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,531,656.40. This represents a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company 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.