West Family Investments Inc. Invests $796,000 in BlackRock $BLK

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 828 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $796,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after acquiring an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the second quarter worth approximately $98,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $1,165.00 to $1,364.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of BlackRock from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Zacks Research downgraded BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered BlackRock from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,311.06.

BlackRock Stock Down 2.4%

BLK traded down $26.89 on Tuesday, hitting $1,095.40. The company had a trading volume of 575,841 shares, compared to its average volume of 768,611. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,098.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,049.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.41. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $917.39 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $12.05 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 54.78%.

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.