Verus Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in BlackRock $BLK

Verus Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 196 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Welch Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 9 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. boosted its position in BlackRock by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $357,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 9.6% during the second quarter. CNB Bank now owns 103 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd grew its position in BlackRock by 14.3% during the second quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 72 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the period. Finally, McLean Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% in the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock traded down $7.44 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $1,086.49. The company had a trading volume of 16,752 shares, compared to its average volume of 711,036. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $1,129.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,073.06. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94. The company has a market capitalization of $168.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04.

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

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total transaction of $13,980,480.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,394,113.20. This trade represents a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,362.00 to $1,486.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Loop Capital set a $1,255.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,280.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,303.41.

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.