Vest Financial LLC Raises Stock Position in BlackRock $BLK

Vest Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 2.7% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 44,118 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,162 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $46,291,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Welch Group LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $797,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. McLean Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $285,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Oklahoma lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $838,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total transaction of $13,565,933.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $283,267,354.71. This trade represents a 4.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,120.50, for a total transaction of $19,207,611.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 61,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,763,964.50. This trade represents a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Monday. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,184.13. The stock has a market cap of $175.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.45. The company’s 50 day moving average is $1,134.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,035.56. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $10.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BLK. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,252.00 to $1,301.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,258.56.

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.