Barrett & Company Inc. Increases Stake in BlackRock $BLK

Barrett & Company Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 1,500.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 64 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Barrett & Company Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $67,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McLean Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $838,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Detalus Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Detalus Advisors LLC now owns 409 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $387,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,120.50, for a total value of $19,207,611.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 61,369 shares in the company, valued at approximately $68,763,964.50. This trade represents a 21.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total transaction of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,936,571.86. This trade represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,396.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $980.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,213.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,160.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $179.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1,129.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,027.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $773.74 and a 1-year high of $1,183.50.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $10.36 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.39%.

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.