New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 234,126 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 14,668 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $190,063,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Abacus Planning Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 334 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $271,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the period. Everhart Financial Group Inc. grew its position in BlackRock by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 450 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $365,000 after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 1,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares during the period. Finally, ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 538 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of BLK traded up $10.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $760.05. 617,157 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 630,259. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $804.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $758.48. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $596.18 and a 12-month high of $845.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $113.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $7.93 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. UBS Group increased their target price on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price target (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. TD Cowen upgraded BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $845.42.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total transaction of $2,669,833.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 70,378 shares in the company, valued at $54,972,959.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total transaction of $2,669,833.98. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 70,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $54,972,959.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total value of $765,272.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,574,225.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 82,511 shares of company stock worth $66,778,367. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.