Calamos Advisors LLC Trims Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Calamos Advisors LLC reduced its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 31,662 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 196 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $25,703,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BLK. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $1,037,009,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 104,159.9% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 697,499 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $494,269,000 after buying an additional 696,830 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 77,524.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 641,955 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,211,390,000 after buying an additional 641,128 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 22.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,105,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,361,064,000 after buying an additional 379,631 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in BlackRock by 84.4% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 744,770 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $481,486,000 after buying an additional 340,792 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of BLK stock traded up $5.97 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $753.27. The company had a trading volume of 88,327 shares, compared to its average volume of 619,816. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00. The company has a market capitalization of $112.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $805.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $755.13.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total value of $5,085,660.60. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,366,142.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028 in the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on BLK. 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 report on Friday, April 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen upgraded BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

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.