Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 329 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $337,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% in the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BLK. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,103.33.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE BLK opened at $1,004.23 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $1,027.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $948.40. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,082.45. The company has a market capitalization of $155.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.78, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.28.

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

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were paid a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.35%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

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

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.