Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 3,675 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 20.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 21,333 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,675 shares during the quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $20,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Savvy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 14.3% during the third quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 351 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Proactive Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $241,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 520.8% during the 3rd quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 149 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $141,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 352,739 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $334,929,000 after purchasing an additional 5,641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $334,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK traded up $3.13 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $1,056.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 103,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 571,552. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $956.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $863.66. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $658.14 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34. The company has a market capitalization of $156.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $10.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.16 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.