Verity Asset Management Inc. Trims Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Verity Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 17.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 229 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 49 shares during the quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $217,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 35,061 shares of company stock worth $30,734,840. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BLK shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,004.54.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,039.28 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $650.63 and a 12-month high of $1,057.51. The firm has a market cap of $153.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.30. The company’s 50-day moving average is $953.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $860.23. 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 (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $10.91 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 EPS for the current year.

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.