Rakuten Securities Inc. Boosts Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 65.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 246 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 97 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $252,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 138,682.5% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $634,000 after acquiring an additional 633,779 shares during the period. Amundi bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $528,792,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $343,976,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $330,662,000. Finally, National Pension Service acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $322,097,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $69,117,330. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

BLK opened at $912.43 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $990.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $986.42. The company has a market cap of $141.66 billion, a PE ratio of 21.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.28%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

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.