Texas Bank & Trust Co Trims Stock Position in BlackRock $BLK

Texas Bank & Trust Co cut its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 15.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 275 shares during the period. Texas Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,469,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BLK. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 104,598.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,500,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,312,759,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,740 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 401.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,095,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,122,743,000 after purchasing an additional 876,836 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,764,072 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,027,419,000 after purchasing an additional 387,466 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in BlackRock by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,100,163 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,152,907,000 after acquiring an additional 329,244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in BlackRock by 32.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,131,919 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,071,339,000 after acquiring an additional 279,336 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on BLK shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BlackRock to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $990.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,151.21.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,128.45 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,101.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $997.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $773.74 and a 52 week high of $1,171.89. The company has a market cap of $174.74 billion, a PE ratio of 27.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.42.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its 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 15.53%. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $10.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.39%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total transaction of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,506 shares in the company, valued at $3,936,571.86. This represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total transaction of $13,565,933.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,267,354.71. This represents a 4.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573 in the last quarter. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.