Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $8,241,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $518,000. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 28,711 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $29,432,000 after purchasing an additional 489 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its holdings in BlackRock by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 12,480 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,793,000 after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter worth approximately $32,904,000. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 27,092 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,724,000 after buying an additional 614 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BLK. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley upped 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 note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group upped 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 note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped 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 note on Thursday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total value of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,531,656.40. This represents a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $959.02 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The stock has a market cap of $148.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $996.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $983.60.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 49.62%.

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.