Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Increases Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 9.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,620 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $17,645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 9.5% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 938 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 51.7% in the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 578 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 405.1% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,652 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,210,000 after buying an additional 2,127 shares in the last quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. grew its position in BlackRock by 3.2% during the first quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. now owns 640 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $534,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% during the first quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 27,140 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $22,626,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,036.46 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $724.54 and a 12-month high of $1,068.34. The company has a market cap of $160.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $984.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $880.90.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $10.91 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This represents a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,019.62.

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.