USS Investment Management Ltd Increases Stock Holdings in BlackRock $BLK

USS Investment Management Ltd boosted its holdings in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 5.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,526 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,247 shares during the quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $24,554,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter worth approximately $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter worth approximately $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $98,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock is helping launch Open USD, a new stablecoin backed by major firms including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BNY Mellon, Coinbase and BlackRock. Investors may see this as a strategic move to deepen BlackRock’s presence in crypto infrastructure and tokenized finance. Article: Stripe, Visa, BlackRock Back New Open USD Stablecoin In Bid To Challenge Tether, Circle
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s Aladdin platform is being integrated more deeply with Ethena’s tokenized dollar products, reinforcing BlackRock’s push into blockchain-based institutional finance and broadening the ecosystem around its platforms. Article: BlackRock’s Aladdin Platform Expands Integration with Ethena’s Tokenized Dollar Suite
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock registered shares related to its HPS deal consideration, a procedural step that suggests progress on a strategic acquisition/investment initiative rather than a setback. Article: BlackRock Registers Shares for HPS Deal Consideration
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock’s investment outlook turned cautious on emerging-market equities while upgrading euro bonds, reflecting a portfolio positioning shift that may not directly affect earnings but could influence sentiment around its market views and product flows. Article: BlackRock turns cautious on emerging markets, upgrades euro bonds
• Neutral Sentiment: Several reports showed outflows and rebalancing in BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT, which may weigh on crypto-related sentiment, but the flow data appears tied to broader ETF rotation rather than a BlackRock-specific problem. Article: BlackRock’s IBIT Sees $300M Outflow As Bitcoin ETF Rebalancing Deepens
• Negative Sentiment: Broader Bitcoin ETF weakness and a reported worst month for U.S. spot Bitcoin funds could pressure sentiment around BlackRock’s crypto ETF business if outflows continue, even though this is more about the category than BLK itself. Article: Bitcoin ETFs Set for Worst Month With $4 Billion in Outflows

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,269.00 to $1,128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 13th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,290.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. UBS Group upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,235.00 to $1,270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,393.00 to $1,430.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,269.44.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total transaction of $9,233,627.40. Following the sale, the president directly owned 210,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $222,082,527.60. This trade represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total value of $35,613,645.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 230,516 shares in the company, valued at $242,168,583.80. This trade represents a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.0%

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $959.52 on Wednesday. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94. The stock has a market cap of $148.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a current ratio of 4.09, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1,041.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,047.86.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $12.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.40 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $6.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.56 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 24.40%.The firm’s revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.64 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 53.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.53%.

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.