Covington Investment Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Covington Investment Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,874 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 59 shares during the quarter. BlackRock makes up approximately 1.3% of Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Covington Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $15,248,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Norges Bank acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth about $2,356,357,000. Blair William & Co. IL purchased a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,945,000. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $411,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 26.4% during the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 5,933 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,082,000 after acquiring an additional 1,239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 301.7% in the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 28,009 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,712,000 after acquiring an additional 21,036 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BLK. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $968.46 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $150.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.06, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $979.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $990.21. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month 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.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 49.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.