New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Boosts Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,289 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,334,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Paralel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Paralel Advisors LLC now owns 2,859 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,848,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 6,756 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,368,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its stake in BlackRock by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,200 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,422,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in BlackRock by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 17,679 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $11,429,000 after purchasing an additional 769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $303,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock traded up $6.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $787.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 769,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 564,991. The company’s fifty day moving average is $779.33 and its 200-day moving average is $792.90. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00. The company has a market capitalization of $117.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 5.32, a current ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.59%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.84%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Company 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.