Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,641 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,558,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 35.8% in the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,945,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in BlackRock by 219.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after buying an additional 30,274 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at $161,918,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 62.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after buying an additional 884 shares during the period. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at $759,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 35,061 shares of company stock worth $30,734,840. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,039.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $153.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $953.10 and a 200-day moving average of $860.23. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $650.63 and a 52 week high of $1,057.51.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $10.91 EPS. On average, analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $912.00 to $937.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Argus upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,004.54.

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.