Skopos Labs Inc. Invests $686,000 in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Skopos Labs Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 845 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $686,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter worth $599,000. Lincoln National Corp lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 7.1% during the third quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 1,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 5.2% during the third quarter. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC now owns 1,389 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $898,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 2.4% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 50,793 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $32,837,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 24.8% during the third quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 675 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $437,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK traded down $2.61 during trading on Friday, hitting $781.94. 429,037 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 606,121. The stock has a market capitalization of $116.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.00, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 5.32 and a quick ratio of 5.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $596.18 and a 12-month high of $845.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $790.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $781.53.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The company’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $7.93 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 70,956 shares of company stock valued at $57,252,931 in the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

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.