Woodline Partners LP Takes Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Woodline Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 8,743 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $8,963,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,690,000. Vident Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 13.9% during the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 1,854 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,901,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $195,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,263,000. Finally, Twinbeech Capital LP purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,304,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on BLK shares. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,100.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,065.00 to $1,035.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK traded down $5.87 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $975.46. 102,521 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 692,207. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.23, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.41. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $752.30 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The company's 50 day moving average price is $921.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $976.43.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $9.81 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.63%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. This represents a 10.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 12,430 shares of company stock worth $11,237,249 in the last three months. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company's stock.

BlackRock Company Profile

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.