West Family Investments Inc. Invests $796,000 in BlackRock $BLK

West Family Investments Inc. purchased a new position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 828 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $796,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,615,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter worth $98,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,298.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.06.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK traded down $26.89 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $1,095.40. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 575,841 shares, compared to its average volume of 768,611. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,098.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,049.58. The firm has a market cap of $169.64 billion, a PE ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.41. BlackRock has a one year low of $917.39 and a one year 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.

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

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 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.