West Coast Financial LLC Invests $304,000 in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

West Coast Financial LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 297 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 397,641 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $313,063,000 after acquiring an additional 20,692 shares during the period. One Capital Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 31.7% during the second quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 324 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $383,000. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 19.1% in the second quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 530 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $417,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co grew its holdings in BlackRock by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co now owns 8,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,317,000 after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,015.01 on Thursday. 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 has a market capitalization of $157.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.05, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,082.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,029.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $943.81.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.35%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target 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. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,100.50.

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.