Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 532 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,983 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 532 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $8,183,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Xponance Inc. increased its holdings in BlackRock by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 21,198 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $21,730,000 after acquiring an additional 794 shares during the last quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at about $19,971,000. Evoke Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 567 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $582,000 after buying an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 2,497 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,560,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,987 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,338,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $957.17 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market capitalization of $148.60 billion, a PE ratio of 22.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $982.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $987.81. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.18%. BlackRock’s payout ratio 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.