Seven Mile Advisory Purchases New Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Seven Mile Advisory bought a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 222 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,712,493,000 after buying an additional 68,405 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,681,472,000 after buying an additional 42,757 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,663,330,000 after acquiring an additional 30,182 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,356,357,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in BlackRock by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,102,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,130,330,000 after acquiring an additional 160,323 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on BLK. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $947.48 on Monday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $978.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $992.24. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $147.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.62%.

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.