Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 4,568 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 130.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,568 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,369,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,178,048,000 after acquiring an additional 104,844 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,329,550 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,148,586,000 after purchasing an additional 35,161 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 22.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,105,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,361,064,000 after buying an additional 379,631 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 21.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,745,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,128,544,000 after buying an additional 307,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 5.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,568,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,014,287,000 after buying an additional 74,974 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total transaction of $2,669,833.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 70,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,972,959.58. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total value of $2,669,833.98. Following the transaction, the director now owns 70,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,972,959.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total transaction of $765,272.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,574,225.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 82,511 shares of company stock worth $66,778,367. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE BLK opened at $766.68 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48. The company has a market capitalization of $114.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $803.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $759.31.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About BlackRock

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.