Montecito Bank & Trust Sells 27 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Montecito Bank & Trust lessened its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,830 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 27 shares during the quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,738,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BLK. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,945,000 after buying an additional 1,248 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 219.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after purchasing an additional 30,274 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the 1st quarter worth approximately $161,918,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 62.8% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,804,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $759,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BLK. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,004.54.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.5 %

BLK opened at $1,029.82 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $947.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $857.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $646.91 and a 1-year high of $1,057.51.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $10.91 earnings per share. Analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $875.03, for a total value of $10,500,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,670,194.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 35,061 shares of company stock valued at $30,734,840. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.