Citizens & Northern Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Citizens & Northern Corp lowered its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,421 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,154,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 208.3% in the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Financial Advisors purchased a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Down 2.0 %

BLK stock traded down $15.69 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $783.92. The stock had a trading volume of 362,251 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,926. The company has a quick ratio of 5.32, a current ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market cap of $116.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.08, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $790.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $781.51. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $7.93 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,910,292.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at $13,910,292.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 107,015 shares of company stock worth $86,751,357. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BLK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $845.42.

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.