OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Takes Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $229,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $263,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA boosted its stake in BlackRock by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 1,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 368 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 3,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,921,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $954.11 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $980.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $987.36. The company has a market cap of $148.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.72, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at $3,531,656.40. The trade was a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BLK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

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.