Bessemer Group Inc. Buys 1,096 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 35.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,201 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,096 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $4,306,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in BlackRock by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,712,493,000 after purchasing an additional 68,405 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,072,787,000 after acquiring an additional 190,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,450,475,000 after acquiring an additional 26,485 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $2,356,357,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in BlackRock by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,102,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,130,330,000 after purchasing an additional 160,323 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America dropped their price target on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $950.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,096.92.

BlackRock Stock Up 2.4 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $879.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market cap of $136.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $942.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $987.97.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $9.81 earnings per share. Analysts predict 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 issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

About BlackRock

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.