Strs Ohio Acquires New Stake in BlackRock $BLK

Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 43,839 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $41,493,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 23.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $216,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 27,841 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,561,000 after buying an additional 4,079 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,343 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,703,000 after buying an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total transaction of $16,641,167.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 263,751 shares in the company, valued at $296,002,472.28. This trade represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total value of $20,301,321.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 19,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,617,148. This trade represents a 48.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Telsey Advisory Group restated an “outperform” rating on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Barclays upped their target price on BlackRock from $990.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on BlackRock from $959.00 to $1,210.00 in a report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,018.00 to $1,093.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,214.00 to $1,224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,154.07.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,134.72 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $175.71 billion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $773.74 and a twelve month high of $1,171.89. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,114.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,005.86.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The company’s revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $10.36 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.39%.

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.