LRI Investments LLC Acquires New Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 622 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $491,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Abacus Planning Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 334 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $271,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Knuff & Co LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 48.1% in the fourth quarter. Knuff & Co LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Spreng Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,079,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 404 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Finally, Accurate Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.4% in the first quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,007 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $840,000 after buying an additional 14 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price target on BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $872.29.

BlackRock Stock Up 2.4 %

NYSE BLK traded up $19.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $856.20. 555,814 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 593,194. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 5.32 and a quick ratio of 5.32. The company has a market cap of $127.23 billion, a PE ratio of 21.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $795.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $795.65. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $596.18 and a 52 week high of $857.65.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.96 by $0.40. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 32.36%. The firm had revenue of $4.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $9.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.23 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s 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 owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 66,978 shares of company stock worth $54,692,570. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.