DRW Securities LLC Reduces Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

DRW Securities LLC lowered its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 75.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 553 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,682 shares during the period. DRW Securities LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 100.0% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 81.5% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $54,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,026.24 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $989.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $884.21. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $724.54 and a 52-week high of $1,068.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $10.91 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.35%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Barclays lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

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.