EP Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 80,135 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 863 shares during the quarter. BlackRock accounts for approximately 0.8% of EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. EP Wealth Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.05% of BlackRock worth $65,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Emerald Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors increased its holdings in BlackRock by 1.9% during the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 1,101 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $712,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 200 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $163,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in BlackRock by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $620,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $439,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, 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 is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the company’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 owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were 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 owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock traded down $0.38 on Friday, reaching $769.33. 376,815 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 554,711. The company has a market cap of $114.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $776.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $790.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $7.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

BlackRock Company 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.