Sarasin & Partners LLP Sells 810 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Sarasin & Partners LLP lessened its holdings in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 239,888 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 810 shares during the quarter. BlackRock accounts for about 2.7% of Sarasin & Partners LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Sarasin & Partners LLP’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $230,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Bancorp Inc ME boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. First Bancorp Inc ME now owns 321 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. Rather & Kittrell Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Rather & Kittrell Inc. now owns 430 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $461,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 755 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $808,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Mechanics Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Mechanics Financial Corp now owns 1,900 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,034,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Galvin Gaustad & Stein LLC now owns 1,031 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on BLK. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,145.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,238.00 to $1,105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,304.29.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK stock opened at $1,128.98 on Friday. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $917.39 and a 1-year high of $1,219.94. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $1,037.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,041.54. The company has a market capitalization of $174.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.98, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 4.09.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 15.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $12.05 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 55.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be given a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

BlackRock News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock is promoting model portfolios as a way to bring private-market funds to affluent individual investors. Wider distribution could increase fee-generating assets and strengthen BlackRock’s position in alternatives. Wall Street touts outsourced allocation ploy in bid to market private funds to individuals
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock is expanding blockchain-based products, including tokenized European money-market funds through JPMorgan’s Kinexys platform. The initiative supports long-term growth in digital assets and institutional liquidity products. BlackRock brings tokenized money market funds to Europe via JPMorgan
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock is among the validators for Circle’s planned Arc blockchain and intends to deploy its BUIDL digital liquidity fund on the network. The relationship could help accelerate adoption of tokenized securities and reinforce BlackRock’s digital-asset leadership. Blueprint for a Banking Fortress: Circle Redraws the Map
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock will conduct a one-for-three reverse split of its iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA). The action raises the per-share price but does not change investors’ proportional ownership or the fund’s underlying value. BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF To Undergo 1-For-3 Reverse Split
• Negative Sentiment: BlackRock TCP Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: TCPC), an affiliated business-development company, is transferring approximately $523 million of loans—nearly half of its debt investments—to a Pantheon-backed fund while cutting leverage and reviewing strategic options. The move may reduce risk, but the scale of the restructuring highlights stress in private credit and could weigh on sentiment toward BlackRock’s alternatives platform. BlackRock Offloads $523 Million in Loans to Rescue Troubled Private Credit Fund

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.