Principal Street Partners LLC Sells 12 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Principal Street Partners LLC cut its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 2.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 418 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 12 shares during the period. Principal Street Partners LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $371,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after acquiring an additional 226,135 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,081,561,000 after purchasing an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,762,000 after purchasing an additional 46,728 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,197,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $942,640,000 after buying an additional 22,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $993,312,000 after buying an additional 1,044,962 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a report on Thursday, November 21st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,026.24 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $724.54 and a fifty-two week high of $1,068.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $989.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $884.21.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.35%.

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.