Freestone Grove Partners LP Invests $71.66 Million in BlackRock $BLK

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 74,523 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $71,658,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. McIlrath & Eck LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 212 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $227,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Manske Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Manske Wealth Management now owns 345 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Gibson Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Gibson Capital LLC now owns 308 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $330,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 230 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $246,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Great Diamond Partners LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Great Diamond Partners LLC now owns 2,791 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,987,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,260.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,340.00 to $1,450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.06.

Key Stories Impacting BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has processed more than $5 billion in tax-deferred conversions from directly held Bitcoin. Reducing the minimum conversion size from $25 million to $1 million could make the product accessible to more wealthy investors and institutions, potentially supporting assets under management and fee revenue. However, these transactions transfer existing Bitcoin into the ETF rather than representing equivalent new cash inflows. Bitcoin to $100K? BlackRock’s $5B ETF Shift Pulls More BTC Into Wall Street
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain broadly optimistic about BlackRock’s growth prospects and target price, despite the shares’ strong multiyear advance. What Are Wall Street Analysts’ Target Price for BlackRock Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock named Jessica Tan to lead its global product unit, a management change that could influence future product development and distribution but whose financial impact is not yet clear. BlackRock names Jessica Tan to head global product unit
• Neutral Sentiment: The company announced final August cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. The announcement is routine and primarily affects fund investors rather than BlackRock’s corporate earnings. BlackRock Canada Announces Final August Cash Distributions
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm said it is investigating potential securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds, alleging that the company may have issued materially misleading business information. The announcement does not establish wrongdoing, but it introduces potential legal, reputational and financial risk. BlackRock Investor News: Rosen Law Firm Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: One valuation review says BlackRock now trades near fair value on intrinsic estimates and looks expensive on earnings multiples after an approximately 82% three-year return, limiting near-term upside unless earnings and fee growth accelerate. BlackRock Stock Looks Fully Valued After an 82% Run

BlackRock Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE BLK opened at $1,174.17 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $181.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.42. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94. The company has a quick ratio of 3.59, a current ratio of 3.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business’s fifty day moving average is $1,075.18 and its 200 day moving average is $1,045.98.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $12.05 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 54.78%.

BlackRock 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.