5,988 Shares in BlackRock $BLK Bought by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 5,988 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $6,982,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Westerkirk Capital Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,877,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its stake in BlackRock by 7.9% during the second quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 23,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,693 shares during the period. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter valued at $6,201,000. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter worth about $700,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its position in BlackRock by 8.2% during the second quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 256,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $269,591,000 after buying an additional 19,404 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, CFO Martin Small sold 27,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,171.14, for a total transaction of $31,675,823.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,363,724.98. The trade was a 71.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,069.56, for a total transaction of $240,651.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,054,779.16. This trade represents a 3.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 111,319 shares of company stock worth $123,999,249 in the last 90 days. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Barclays upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group raised shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,280.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BlackRock from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Evercore lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,235.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,308.89.

More BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Sonic Labs announced a Treasury‑backed USSD stablecoin that lists BlackRock and WisdomTree as treasury backers — a move that highlights BlackRock’s expanding role in tokenized real‑world assets and DeFi liquidity, which could support new fee pools and product distribution. Sonic Labs Unveils USSD Stablecoin
• Positive Sentiment: Growth in tokenized RWAs continues to accelerate and BlackRock’s BUIDL product leads tokenized Treasuries — an expansion that can diversify revenue beyond traditional ETF management. RWA Market Tops $24.9B
• Neutral Sentiment: Evercore trimmed its price target on BLK to $1,235 — a downgrade that reduces upside expectations but still sits above the current share price, so it’s a watch item rather than a game‑changer. Evercore Cuts BlackRock Price Target
• Neutral Sentiment: On‑chain activity: wallets linked to BlackRock moved ~2,200 BTC and ~2,417 ETH to Coinbase — likely operational/custody flows tied to spot ETF operations; notable for liquidity management but ambiguous for immediate P&L impact. BlackRock Transfers BTC and ETH to Coinbase
• Negative Sentiment: BlackRock capped withdrawals from its HPS Corporate Lending Fund after record redemption requests — the first time limits were hit; that raises concerns about private‑credit liquidity, possible writedowns and reputational risk for BLK’s alternative‑credit business. BlackRock Won’t Let Billionaires Cash Out
• Negative Sentiment: Broader private‑credit stress: reporting shows cracks in the private credit market (including surging outflows at peers), amplifying fears that redemption pressures could spread and hurt fee‑generating AUM. Private Credit Market Cracks
• Negative Sentiment: Legal risk: a shareholder law firm has launched an inquiry into BlackRock executives over potential securities claims — adds headline risk and could pressure sentiment if it develops. Johnson Fistel Investigation Notice
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto ETF flows swung from large inflows to outflows late last week (Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs), illustrating the volatility in crypto‑related AUM that can amplify fee variability for providers including BlackRock. Why Did Bitcoin Price Crash?

BlackRock Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $959.32 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $149.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.48. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $773.74 and a 12-month high of $1,219.94. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,086.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,097.83.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.55 by $0.61. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.78% and a net margin of 22.93%.The firm had revenue of $7.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $11.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $5.73 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 64.71%.

BlackRock 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.