Wolff Wiese Magana LLC Increases Stake in BlackRock $BLK

Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 275.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 285 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Kelly Financial Services LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 12.6% in the second quarter. Kelly Financial Services LLC now owns 242 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $254,000 after buying an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 7.9% in the second quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 644 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $676,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 12.6% in the second quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 473 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 665.7% in the second quarter. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC now owns 1,945 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,041,000 after buying an additional 1,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Enclave Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $238,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total value of $4,978,539.54. Following the transaction, the director 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,617,148. This trade represents a 48.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on BLK. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,170.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $980.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on BlackRock from $1,247.00 to $1,224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Zacks Research lowered BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,154.07.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,157.69 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1,124.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,021.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,171.89.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.39%.

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.