Aspetuck Financial Management LLC Acquires New Position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

Aspetuck Financial Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 794 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $752,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $13,712,493,000 after buying an additional 68,405 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,097,524 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,200,450,000 after buying an additional 93,844 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 104,598.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,500,083 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,312,759,000 after buying an additional 3,496,740 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,072,787,000 after buying an additional 190,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $912.50, for a total value of $9,125,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 66,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,256,025. This trade represents a 13.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on BLK. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,035.00 to $1,105.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $994.00 to $1,115.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $1,102.08.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK stock traded up $18.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $1,049.35. The stock had a trading volume of 799,881 shares, compared to its average volume of 695,037. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The firm has a market cap of $162.58 billion, a PE ratio of 25.49, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 4.34 and a quick ratio of 4.34. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $958.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $969.49.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 30.09% and a return on equity of 15.57%. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $9.81 EPS. The business's revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 5th. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.63%.

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.