HighTower Advisors LLC Has $100.06 Million Holdings in BlackRock $BLK

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 4.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 85,781 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,760 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $100,057,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,991,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,680,334,000 after purchasing an additional 227,192 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 1.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,143,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,281,641,000 after buying an additional 34,049 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,644,007,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 72.5% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,005,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,104,122,000 after acquiring an additional 842,901 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 105,267.4% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,705,899 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,789,915,000 after buying an additional 1,704,280 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock formally expanded into DeFi by listing its tokenized Treasury fund (BUIDL) on Uniswap and enabling on‑chain trading — a strategic move that broadens distribution channels for BlackRock’s digital‑asset products and could support future fee/AUM growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Income and earnings fundamentals: company reporting and corporate actions (recent EPS beat and an increased quarterly dividend to $5.73) provide support for income‑oriented investors and justify parts of the stock’s elevated multiple. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: 13F / portfolio moves: recent SEC filings show large BlackRock fund repositioning (additions to IVV, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN and new sizable positions in tickers like Q, SOLS, LXP) — signals scale and active management but are informational about fund flows rather than an immediate BLK earnings driver. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Routine ownership disclosures: filings around a ~5% voting stake in BAWAG Group were posted — standard large‑investor activity with limited direct impact on BlackRock’s core management fees. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Robert Goldstein executed sizeable open‑market sales (Feb. 10–11; Form 4 filed). Large insider sales can weigh on near‑term sentiment even when they’re for diversification or tax planning. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported private‑credit loss: a WSJ report about a ~$400M loss linked to fake invoices in a BlackRock unit highlights execution and due‑diligence risk in private markets and can pressure the multiple investors assign to alternatives. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto headwinds: weakening crypto prices, ETF outflows and reports that some BlackRock crypto portfolios have trimmed BTC/ETH exposure could limit near‑term AUM and fee growth from digital‑asset offerings despite the Uniswap announcement. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore decreased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 12th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Freedom Capital upgraded BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,244.00 to $1,267.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,514.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,311.11.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, CFO Martin Small sold 27,047 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,171.14, for a total value of $31,675,823.58. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 10,557 shares in the company, valued at $12,363,724.98. This trade represents a 71.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 2,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,073.87, for a total transaction of $2,339,962.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,026,331.41. The trade was a 24.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 109,967 shares of company stock worth $122,487,380. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,071.59 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a current ratio of 3.33. The company has a market cap of $166.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,093.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,105.66. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.55 by $0.61. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.14% and a net margin of 22.93%.The business had revenue of $6.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $11.93 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be paid a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 58.84%.

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.