Regal Investment Advisors LLC Sells 77 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Regal Investment Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 12.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 527 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 77 shares during the period. Regal Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $540,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter valued at $518,000. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in BlackRock by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 28,711 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $29,432,000 after buying an additional 489 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in BlackRock by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 12,480 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,793,000 after acquiring an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 65,396 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $67,038,000 after acquiring an additional 4,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 39,539 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,532,000 after acquiring an additional 12,864 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Barclays lifted their price target on BlackRock from $950.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock opened at $866.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.63, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $934.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $986.36. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $9.81 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 50.63%.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.