Sovereign Financial Group Inc. Makes New Investment in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sovereign Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 252 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its position in BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

BlackRock Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $787.08 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $777.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $792.54. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $596.18 and a 52 week high of $845.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. The company has a market cap of $116.96 billion, a PE ratio of 20.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.34.

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

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 51.84%.

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.