Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Sells 1,209 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. trimmed its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 1.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 80,658 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,209 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned 0.05% of BlackRock worth $84,630,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Welch Group LLC raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the period. CNB Bank grew its stake in BlackRock by 9.6% in the 2nd 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 raised its holdings in BlackRock by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 72 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. Finally, McLean Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in BlackRock by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,362.00 to $1,486.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,280.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on 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 lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Argus upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,302.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $8,394,113.20. The trade was a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of BLK opened at $1,057.41 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $1,127.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,076.22. The company has a quick ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $773.74 and a 12-month high of $1,219.94.

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

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.