BlackRock $BLK Shares Purchased by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 1.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 40,956 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 573 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $39,382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 96,671.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 213,813,443 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $205,594,454,000 after purchasing an additional 213,592,496 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth $9,747,857,000. State Street Corp increased its position in BlackRock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,264,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,705,193,000 after buying an additional 33,752 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 5,190.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,490,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,876,618,000 after buying an additional 5,386,640 shares during the period. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its stake in BlackRock by 4.7% in the first quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 5,330,492 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,126,387,000 after buying an additional 237,667 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK traded down $26.89 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $1,095.40. 575,841 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 768,611. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,096.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,049.57.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. The business had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The company’s revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $12.05 earnings per share. Analysts predict that BlackRock will post 55.86 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Shareholders 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 is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 54.78%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of BlackRock from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,311.06.

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.