J. Richard Kushel Sells 430 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Stock

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

J. Richard Kushel also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, January 30th, J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00.
• On Tuesday, January 21st, J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK traded down $15.23 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $951.24. 1,039,793 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 843,875. The company has a market cap of $147.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.65, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $1,000.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $983.89.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,120.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 39.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 709 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 64.3% in the 3rd quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 115 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in BlackRock by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,979 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,829,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in BlackRock by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 34,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $33,612,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BSW Wealth Partners acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter valued at about $207,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

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.