Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Grows Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 301,655 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,709 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $286,424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in BlackRock by 1,150.0% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 150 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $142,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,081,561,000 after buying an additional 40,865 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 18,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,645,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 32.1% in the third quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,467 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,342,000 after buying an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SevenBridge Financial Group LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC now owns 1,312 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,036.46 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $724.54 and a 1-year high of $1,068.34. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $984.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $880.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BLK. TD Cowen upped their price objective on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Company Profile

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.