JT Stratford LLC Acquires 853 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

JT Stratford LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 349.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,097 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 853 shares during the quarter. JT Stratford LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,279,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new position in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at $259,000. Sigma Planning Corp increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 1,288 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,351,000 after buying an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, Freestone Capital Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 28.2% during the second quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC now owns 382 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $401,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group upgraded BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,280.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $1,351.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,514.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Freedom Capital raised shares of BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,244.00 to $1,267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,311.11.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Martin Small sold 27,047 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,171.14, for a total transaction of $31,675,823.58. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at $12,363,724.98. The trade was a 71.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,087.29, for a total value of $58,920,245.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 51,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,971,514.62. This represents a 51.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 111,319 shares of company stock valued at $123,999,249 in the last three months. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3%

BlackRock stock opened at $1,049.46 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $162.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,093.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,101.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.98. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.55 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $7.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.80 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 22.93% and a return on equity of 14.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $11.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.84%.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Large institutional tech win — Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo will extend use of BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth to support international expansion, a clear enterprise-sale that reinforces recurring technology fees and cross-sell potential. Intesa Sanpaolo to adopt Aladdin Wealth
• Positive Sentiment: Crypto ETF inflows led by BlackRock’s IBIT — IBIT drew large daily inflows ($307M–$322M in recent days), driving multi-day net ETF flows that boost fee-bearing AUM and underscore BlackRock’s lead in spot-BTC ETF market share. This supports recurring ETF revenue if flows persist. Bitcoin ETFs record inflow streak
• Positive Sentiment: New product expansion — BlackRock launched the iShares Broad USD Floating Rate Loan ETF (USLN), its first index ETF for U.S. dollar leveraged loans, broadening product lineup and potential fee pools in a $1.4T market. Launch of USLN ETF
• Positive Sentiment: Infrastructure deal activity — BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners is leading a consortium to acquire AES in a ~$33.4B deal, signaling active alternatives dealmaking that can bolster private markets and carried-interest economics. BlackRock-led group to buy AES
• Neutral Sentiment: Strategic portfolio moves and product tweaks — BlackRock disclosed a >10% stake / 11.56% voting stake in Qiagen and signaled making target-date funds riskier between ages 45–60 (a product strategy change). These are notable for capital allocation and product positioning but have mixed, longer-term implications for flows. BlackRock stake in Qiagen
• Neutral Sentiment: Energy/infrastructure exposure reshaped — BlackRock bought into AES and exited Naturgy, reflecting a reallocation within energy/infrastructure holdings; important for long-term strategy but not an immediate earnings swing. Reshaping power exposure
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade and sector weakness — Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded BLK from “moderate buy” to “moderate sell,” and financial stocks showed intraday weakness that put downward pressure on BLK shares. Downgrades and sector moves often trigger short-term selling. KBW downgrade / sector retreat
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto volatility and prior outflows — Earlier reports that IBIT/Bitcoin ETFs had shed large amounts of BTC (e.g., 42,000 BTC) highlight volatility in crypto AUM; while recent inflows offset some outflows, crypto AUM swings can compress fee growth and increase short-term revenue volatility. Bitcoin ETFs had major drawdowns

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.