Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Cuts Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,800 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $7,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 100.0% in the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock 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 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at $298,272,703.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,042 shares of company stock worth $56,857,777. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $974.07 on Friday. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $926.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $842.59. The stock has a market cap of $144.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $1,032.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.73 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on BlackRock from $995.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Argus boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $995.31.

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.