Strategic Blueprint LLC Has $449,000 Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 438 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 27 shares during the quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. State Street Corp increased its holdings in BlackRock by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,681,472,000 after purchasing an additional 42,757 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,663,330,000 after buying an additional 30,182 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 10.6% in the 3rd 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. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,081,561,000 after acquiring an additional 40,865 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $993,312,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,962 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,075.83 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market capitalization of $166.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,025.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $960.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.45 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141 in the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.