Quest Partners LLC Sells 2,574 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Quest Partners LLC cut its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 95.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 120 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,574 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $94,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its position in BlackRock by 57.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,514,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,853,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279,952 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,918,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,181,346,000 after purchasing an additional 749,654 shares during the period. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 24,171.5% during the 1st quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 416,014 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $346,831,000 after purchasing an additional 414,300 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,990,052,000 after purchasing an additional 292,017 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1,829.7% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 297,985 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $241,904,000 after buying an additional 282,543 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $945.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on BlackRock from $985.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $902.13.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at $298,272,703.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total transaction of $1,289,224.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,826,802.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,042 shares of company stock valued at $79,387,117 in the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $904.83 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $134.46 billion, a PE ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $908.88. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $862.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $815.73.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.28 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

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.