D.B. Root & Company LLC Grows Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

D.B. Root & Company LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 548 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 76 shares during the period. D.B. Root & Company LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,990,052,000 after purchasing an additional 292,017 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in BlackRock by 11.1% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,354,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,630,127,000 after purchasing an additional 435,358 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 2.9% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,310,762,000 after purchasing an additional 46,728 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.9% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,197,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $942,640,000 after purchasing an additional 22,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $993,312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044,962 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,029.82 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $947.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $857.04. The firm has a market cap of $152.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.42, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $646.91 and a 52-week high of $1,057.51. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $10.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 35,061 shares of company stock worth $30,734,840 in the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on BlackRock from $995.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Argus raised their target price on BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Citigroup raised their target price on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $995.31.

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.