Signature Wealth Management Group Has $2.37 Million Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Signature Wealth Management Group raised its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,313 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Signature Wealth Management Group’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,371,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SlateStone Wealth LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 13,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,460,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. First National Advisers LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. First National Advisers LLC now owns 4,980 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,105,000 after buying an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $635,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 115,644 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $118,264,000 after acquiring an additional 23,408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centurion Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $699,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 3.1 %

BLK opened at $928.74 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,084.22. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $144.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $983.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $986.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $9.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

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.