Rakuten Securities Inc. Buys New Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sfmg LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Sfmg LLC now owns 4,774 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,875,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $2,302,000. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 490 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 58,618 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,586,000 after buying an additional 2,082 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,265 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,027,000 after buying an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.9 %

BLK opened at $747.08 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48. The company has a fifty day moving average of $805.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $755.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $7.93 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,691,032.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,366,142.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 100,511 shares of company stock valued at $71,864,028. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.