AJOVista LLC Makes New Investment in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 249 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 671.4% during the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,011 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,583,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter worth about $318,000. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 3,915 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,531,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Advisor Alliance raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 3,522 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,277,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at $13,910,292.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 72,057 shares of company stock worth $58,575,704 in the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

BlackRock Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK traded up $6.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $763.91. 558,283 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 689,289. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48. The firm has a market cap of $113.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $797.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $764.35. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00.

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