First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Acquires 446 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,073 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $3,396,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BLK. DMC Group LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 6.4% in the first quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,324,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 1,865.4% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 9,198 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,669,000 after buying an additional 8,730 shares during the period. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.3% in the first quarter. Bourgeon Capital Management LLC now owns 5,846 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,874,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 113.2% in the first quarter. Lake Street Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,737 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,453 shares during the period. Finally, E&G Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 53.1% during the first quarter. E&G Advisors LP now owns 1,124 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $937,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $915.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $844.17.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.0 %

BLK stock traded down $0.01 during trading on Thursday, reaching $789.12. The stock had a trading volume of 250,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 506,332. The company has a quick ratio of 5.32, a current ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a market capitalization of $117.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $780.75 and its two-hundred day moving average is $792.72.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $7.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were given a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.