Independence Bank of Kentucky Purchases 1,065 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 80.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,388 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,065 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. XML Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 473 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 226 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $177,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $822,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 311 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 17.1% during the 2nd quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 89 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BlackRock from $774.00 to $864.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on BlackRock from $945.00 to $995.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays lifted their price target on BlackRock from $990.00 to $1,010.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $972.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total value of $22,529,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,407,041.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 93,042 shares of company stock worth $79,387,117. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock traded up $30.15 on Friday, hitting $985.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 151,667 shares, compared to its average volume of 572,720. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $987.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $896.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $830.08. The company has a market capitalization of $146.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.30 by $1.16. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $10.91 EPS. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 9th were paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.84%.

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.