Congress Park Capital LLC Cuts Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Congress Park Capital LLC trimmed its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 35.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 275 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Congress Park Capital LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $229,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,918,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,181,346,000 after buying an additional 749,654 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 57.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,514,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,853,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,279,952 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,369,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,178,048,000 after acquiring an additional 104,844 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 2,471,621 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,006,490,000 after acquiring an additional 58,681 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,812,920,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK traded up $7.73 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $788.86. 229,128 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 601,670. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $845.00. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $777.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $792.50. The firm has a market cap of $117.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $7.93 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.84%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BLK. UBS Group increased their price target on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price objective (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $845.42.

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.