First Bancorp Inc ME Lowers Position in BlackRock $BLK

First Bancorp Inc ME lessened its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 9.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 317 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 35 shares during the period. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BLK. Fairway Wealth LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 76.5% in the 1st quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 100.0% during the first quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 200.0% in the second quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 27 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Cheviot Value Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. Argus boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $1,320.00 price target on shares of BlackRock and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,300.81.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total transaction of $4,978,539.54. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,936,571.86. This represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $1,161.63 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $1,140.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,042.82. BlackRock has a one year low of $773.74 and a one year high of $1,219.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. The company has a market capitalization of $179.88 billion, a PE ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 1.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $11.78 by ($0.23). BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The business had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $11.46 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 53.59%.

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.