Wealth Architects LLC Makes New $322,000 Investment in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Wealth Architects LLC bought a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 314 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter valued at $26,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Collier Financial bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $36,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. UBS Group upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned 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 $1,120.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 in the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $928.74 on Monday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $144.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $983.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $986.99.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders 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. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.62%.

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.