Financial Counselors Inc. Raises Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Financial Counselors Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 94.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,667 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,262 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $4,431,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd 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. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 104,468.9% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 792,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,526,120,000 after acquiring an additional 791,874 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,244,608,000 after acquiring an additional 226,135 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter worth about $115,377,000. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP grew its stake in BlackRock by 174.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 184,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $145,096,000 after purchasing an additional 117,218 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,019.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $993.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $886.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $157.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $725.86 and a 1 year high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $10.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,019.62.

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.