Northwest Bank & Trust Co Buys Shares of 829 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Northwest Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 829 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $673,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 80,135 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $65,053,000 after buying an additional 863 shares in the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 1,511 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares in the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 315.8% in the fourth quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 844 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $685,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 638 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $501,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK traded down $0.38 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $769.33. The stock had a trading volume of 376,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,711. The stock has a market cap of $114.32 billion, a PE ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.34. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $776.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $790.39.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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