TrustBank Takes Position in BlackRock $BLK

TrustBank purchased a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 556 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $595,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter valued at about $700,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 6,347.9% in the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 42,234 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,239,000 after purchasing an additional 41,579 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 920,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $985,331,000 after purchasing an additional 7,457 shares in the last quarter. Sienna Gestion lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 51.5% in the third quarter. Sienna Gestion now owns 22,859 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $24,299,000 after purchasing an additional 7,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 251,856 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $269,572,000 after purchasing an additional 24,196 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total transaction of $35,613,645.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares in the company, valued at $242,168,583.80. The trade was a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total value of $9,233,627.40. Following the sale, the president owned 210,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,082,527.60. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,368.00 to $1,393.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on BlackRock from $1,269.00 to $1,128.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on BlackRock from $1,351.00 to $1,199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,269.06.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,077.84 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,024.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1,054.00. The company has a market cap of $167.31 billion, a PE ratio of 27.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 4.09, a current ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $12.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.40 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.56 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 24.40%.The business’s revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $9.64 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that BlackRock will post 52.8 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 57.53%.

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.