BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Shares Sold by CoreFirst Bank & Trust

CoreFirst Bank & Trust lowered its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 69.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 51 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 117 shares during the quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $41,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its holdings in BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.5 %

BLK stock opened at $781.08 on Tuesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00. The company has a quick ratio of 5.32, a current ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $116.07 billion, a PE ratio of 19.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.34. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $775.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $790.91.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $7.93 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price target (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Company 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.