Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 1,233 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,108 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,233 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $9,829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BLK. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 638 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $501,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $463,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $700,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 52.5% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,926 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GLOBALT Investments LLC GA bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $226,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 target price (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK traded down $0.38 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $769.33. 376,815 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 554,711. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $776.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $790.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $7.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock 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.