Hardy Reed LLC Buys New Position in BlackRock $BLK

Hardy Reed LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 2,386 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $2,294,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,062,677 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $15,051,846,000 after purchasing an additional 221,123 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,264,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,705,193,000 after buying an additional 33,752 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 5,190.3% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,490,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,876,618,000 after buying an additional 5,386,640 shares during the last quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in BlackRock by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 5,330,492 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,126,387,000 after buying an additional 237,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,232,973 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,032,603,000 after buying an additional 35,069 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $1,172.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $181.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $1,053.84 and a 200-day moving average of $1,043.07. BlackRock has a one year low of $917.39 and a one year high of $1,219.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The company had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $12.05 EPS. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 55.63 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $1,165.00 to $1,364.00 in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered BlackRock from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. UBS Group increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,298.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,311.06.

BlackRock News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure financing could create a major growth opportunity. BlackRock is among the financial firms working with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and other partners to mobilize more than $500 billion for data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure. The initiative could generate fees from asset management, private credit and structured-finance products while broadening BlackRock’s role beyond traditional investing. NVIDIA’s $500 Billion GPU Financing Deal Fuels Path Toward $270
• Positive Sentiment: Scale and asset growth remain key strengths. Reports highlight approximately $15.3 trillion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year AUM increase and improving profit margins. Continued growth in higher-margin ETFs and other products could support earnings and long-term shareholder returns. Larry Fink’s BlackRock Just Crossed $15.3 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock-affiliated investors reportedly sold more than $16 million of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Dartmouth’s holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and other crypto ETFs declined in value. The developments reflect weaker crypto prices and could signal modest pressure on digital-asset flows, but they do not represent a direct sale of BlackRock’s corporate holdings. BlackRock ends the week dumping millions worth of these 2 cryptocurrencies
• Negative Sentiment: Competition is intensifying in ETFs. Corgi Invest plans to challenge BlackRock with a broad, low-fee lineup, while Goldman Sachs’ planned acquisition of NEOS would strengthen a rival Bitcoin income ETF platform.
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm is investigating possible securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds. The announcement is only an investigation—not a filed finding of wrongdoing—but it adds reputational and legal uncertainty. Rosen investor rights investigation

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.