Dakota Wealth Management Boosts Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Dakota Wealth Management lifted its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,068 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,053 shares during the quarter. Dakota Wealth Management’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $18,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the third 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 last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,468.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 792,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,526,120,000 after purchasing an additional 791,874 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $330,662,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 10.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after purchasing an additional 226,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the third quarter worth $115,377,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,845,393.48. The trade was a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,011.87 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,082.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $1,026.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $949.91. The stock has a market cap of $156.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 48.57%.

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.