Foster & Motley Inc. Buys Shares of 329 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Foster & Motley Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 329 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA lifted its position in BlackRock by 208.3% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 96.0% during the fourth quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 24 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

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

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $762.51 on Thursday. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00. The company has a current ratio of 3.48, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $113.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.38, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $803.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $759.33.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. The company 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%. The company’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $7.93 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. TD Cowen upgraded BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

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.