Eagle Ridge Investment Management Buys New Shares in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management acquired a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 14,043 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $14,396,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.3% in the third quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 3,399 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,227,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.7% in the third quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $263,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.5% in the third quarter. Onyx Bridge Wealth Group LLC now owns 328 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.3% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 3,424 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,251,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Saturday, February 1st. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $1,005.99 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $155.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.95, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $1,025.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $966.82. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.45 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.57%.

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.