BNP Paribas Financial Markets Acquires 109,771 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 48.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 337,172 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 109,771 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned approximately 0.23% of BlackRock worth $320,148,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Shum Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth $2,182,000. Avestar Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 16.6% during the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 876 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $832,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.7% during the third quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 14,933 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,179,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 27.5% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 8,609 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,174,000 after buying an additional 1,857 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after buying an additional 226,135 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of BLK stock traded down $8.46 on Tuesday, reaching $1,023.03. 100,745 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 576,988. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $724.54 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.45 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $987.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $882.60.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $10.91 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BLK. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,019.62.

BlackRock 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.