Xponance Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Xponance Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,660 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 992 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $15,960,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its stake in BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Tyler Stone Wealth Management purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 671.4% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price target (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of BlackRock stock traded down $6.49 on Thursday, hitting $747.30. The stock had a trading volume of 614,588 shares, compared to its average volume of 627,257. The stock has a market cap of $111.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.33, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $806.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $755.19. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $7.93 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.26 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,366,142.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 100,511 shares of company stock valued at $71,864,028 in the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.