Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 7,457 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 920,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,457 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $985,331,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in BlackRock by 866.7% in the third quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. now owns 29 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Birchbrook Inc. bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Collier Financial bought a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Goodman Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $37,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,240.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,351.00 to $1,199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,290.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,368.00 to $1,393.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,269.06.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total transaction of $35,613,645.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $242,168,583.80. The trade was a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total value of $9,233,627.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 210,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $222,082,527.60. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 45,024 shares of company stock worth $47,431,063. Insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,073.03 on Monday. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $917.39 and a fifty-two week high of $1,219.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.93, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a current ratio of 4.09. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $1,018.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,053.88.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $12.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.40 by $0.13. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 24.40%.The business had revenue of $6.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $9.64 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 27.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 52.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of $5.73 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 57.53%.

About BlackRock

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.