PGGM Investments Purchases 656 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

PGGM Investments boosted its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 95.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,346 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 656 shares during the period. PGGM Investments’ holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,093,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Emerald Advisors LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% in the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 1,101 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $712,000 after buying an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $620,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $439,000. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN bought a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $205,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $761.28 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $801.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $762.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.93 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,972,959.58. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 82,511 shares of company stock worth $66,778,367 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.