Global Retirement Partners LLC Acquires New Holdings in BlackRock $BLK

Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,428 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $5,695,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 72.5% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,005,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,104,122,000 after acquiring an additional 842,901 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its holdings in BlackRock by 73.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,313,350 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,243,059,000 after purchasing an additional 555,098 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% in the 1st 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 period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 32.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,131,919 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,071,339,000 after purchasing an additional 279,336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter worth about $231,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,018.11 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $157.96 billion, a PE ratio of 26.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $773.74 and a 1-year high of $1,219.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,115.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,080.10. 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 (NYSE:BLK) last announced 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). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The business’s revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $11.46 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 53.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Zacks Research lowered BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group reissued a “hold” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,302.53.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total value of $13,980,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,394,113.20. This trade represents a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.