State of Alaska Department of Revenue Sells 740 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue lessened its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 17,486 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 740 shares during the quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $14,577,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Albion Financial Group UT grew its stake in BlackRock by 4.2% in the first quarter. Albion Financial Group UT now owns 11,263 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $9,390,000 after acquiring an additional 454 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.6% during the first quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,963 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,471,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC now owns 322 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in BlackRock by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 387,202 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $322,810,000 after purchasing an additional 14,477 shares during the period. Finally, Silverlake Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Silverlake Wealth Management LLC now owns 432 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BLK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $915.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.17.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

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

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $788.85 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $780.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $792.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 5.32 and a quick ratio of 5.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00. The firm has a market cap of $117.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.05, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion for 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%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $7.93 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were given 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 currently 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.