FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH Trims Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH reduced its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 2.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 653 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 15 shares during the quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BLK. Abacus Planning Group Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $271,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Knuff & Co LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $365,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Spreng Capital Management Inc. grew its position in BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magellan Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in BlackRock by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 404 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $915.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $844.17.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock traded up $4.23 on Tuesday, reaching $786.50. 103,832 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 601,545. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $596.18 and a 1-year high of $845.00. The firm has a market cap of $116.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. The company’s 50-day moving average is $779.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $793.03.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

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.