United Capital Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in BlackRock $BLK

United Capital Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 8,301 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $7,982,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $9,747,857,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 5,190.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,490,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,876,618,000 after acquiring an additional 5,386,640 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $4,409,095,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,742,680,000. Finally, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bought a new stake in BlackRock during the second quarter worth $129,138,253,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s newer income-focused ETF is reportedly up 19% this year, compared with 10% for JPMorgan’s JEPQ, while charging the same fee. Strong relative performance could support additional iShares inflows and fee revenue. BlackRock ETF outperformance article
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock continues to highlight Bitcoin’s role as “digital gold” and a hedge against rising U.S. debt and deficits. Management also sees continued strength in Bitcoin, supporting the long-term case for cryptocurrency-related assets under management. BlackRock Bitcoin hedge case article
• Positive Sentiment: Adroit Trading Technologies is integrating its cross-asset execution tools with BlackRock’s Aladdin platform. The partnership may improve Aladdin’s functionality, client retention and potential technology-related revenue. Aladdin integration article
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s crypto portfolio reportedly gained more than $15 billion during August as Bitcoin and Ethereum rallied. The firm is also participating in an Nvidia-led effort tied to AI infrastructure, broadening potential future growth avenues beyond traditional asset management. BlackRock crypto and AI strategy article

BlackRock Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,167.69 on Friday. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $917.39 and a 52 week high of $1,219.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,077.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,046.77. The company has a quick ratio of 3.59, a current ratio of 3.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $180.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.42.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $12.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 55.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $5.73 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 54.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on BLK. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research cut BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $1,258.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,311.06.

About BlackRock

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.