BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,860,000 shares, a growth of 22.4% from the August 15th total of 1,520,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 536,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total value of $1,289,224.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,732 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,826,802.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total value of $1,289,224.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,826,802.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 93,042 shares of company stock worth $79,387,117 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth about $24,957,000. SRN Advisors LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 45.1% during the second quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 2,155 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,697,000 after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Farmers National Bank grew its stake in BlackRock by 1.3% in the second quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 7,605 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,988,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,089 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,432,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Century Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 245.2% during the 2nd quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 901 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $709,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.1 %

BLK opened at $895.18 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $133.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $596.18 and a 12 month high of $903.46. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $860.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $815.10.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $9.28 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.84%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group decreased their target price on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Argus increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $945.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $902.13.

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.