Insider Selling: BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) CEO Sells 12,054 Shares of Stock

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total value of $13,565,933.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $283,267,354.71. This trade represents a 4.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Laurence Fink also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, July 24th, Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of BlackRock stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total transaction of $16,641,167.84.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,123.48 on Friday. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,130.66. The company has a current ratio of 4.34, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,027.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $976.73. The company has a market cap of $174.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.16, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.41.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.83%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $10.36 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.39%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Welch Group LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $797,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in BlackRock by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Oklahoma raised its holdings in BlackRock by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its holdings in BlackRock by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $838,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,018.00 to $1,093.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. TD Cowen cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded BlackRock to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,151.21.

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.