Monument Capital Management Takes $232,000 Position in BlackRock $BLK

Monument Capital Management purchased a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 221 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Oklahoma raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $838,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 8.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 123 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total value of $4,978,539.54. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,936,571.86. This trade represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 17,142 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,120.50, for a total transaction of $19,207,611.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 61,369 shares in the company, valued at $68,763,964.50. This trade represents a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Friday. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $773.74 and a twelve month high of $1,184.13. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,134.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,034.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45. 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 data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.68% and a return on equity of 15.53%. The company’s revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $10.36 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $5.21 dividend. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $980.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,362.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,258.56.

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.