BlackRock $BLK Shares Bought by Sovereign Financial Group Inc.

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 13.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 431 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Sovereign Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 7.4% during the second quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,586 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,960,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares during the period. waypoint wealth counsel acquired a new position in BlackRock during the second quarter worth about $216,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 7.2% during the second quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,324 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $18,177,000 after acquiring an additional 1,171 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 8.7% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,389 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,654,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 0.7% during the second quarter. Summit Place Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,531 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,705,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research lowered BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,252.00 to $1,301.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,221.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,258.56.

BlackRock Trading Down 3.0%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Monday. BlackRock has a one year low of $773.74 and a one year high of $1,184.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.31 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $1,134.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,035.56.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The firm had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $10.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total transaction of $13,565,933.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 251,697 shares in the company, valued at $283,267,354.71. The trade was a 4.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total value of $4,978,539.54. Following the sale, the director owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,936,571.86. This represents a 55.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

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.