Short Interest in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Grows By 8.9%

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,960,000 shares, a growth of 8.9% from the September 30th total of 1,800,000 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 507,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on BLK. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a report on Monday. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $995.31.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.3 %

BLK traded down $3.30 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $979.87. The company had a trading volume of 427,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 570,466. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $933.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $847.45. The stock has a market cap of $145.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.99, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $604.41 and a 52 week high of $1,032.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the firm’s 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 $298,272,703.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,042 shares of company stock worth $56,857,777. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

About BlackRock

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.