Flputnam Investment Management Co. Acquires New Holdings in BlackRock $BLK

Key Points

• Flputnam Investment Management acquired 16,660 BlackRock shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $16.0 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.69% of BLK’s outstanding stock.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish, with BlackRock receiving an average “Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $1,311.06. The company also exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $13.91 in EPS and $7.08 billion in revenue, up 30.6% year over year.
• BlackRock declared a quarterly dividend of $5.73 per share, equivalent to an annualized $22.92 and a 2.0% yield.

Flputnam Investment Management Co. bought a new position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,660 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $16,019,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in BlackRock by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 920,578 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $985,331,000 after acquiring an additional 7,457 shares during the period. Liberty One Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 30.7% during the first quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 4,861 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $4,675,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141 shares during the period. Texas Yale Capital Corp. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 5,764 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $6,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 94.6% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 26,828 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $28,720,000 after purchasing an additional 13,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,838,937 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $4,108,968,000 after purchasing an additional 12,019 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,340.00 to $1,450.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings cut BlackRock from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Evercore restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $1,260.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $1,311.06.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,172.20 on Monday. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $1,053.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,042.51. BlackRock has a one year low of $917.39 and a one year high of $1,219.94. The firm has a market cap of $181.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $12.05 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

Trending Headlines about BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure financing could create a major growth opportunity. BlackRock is among the financial firms working with Nvidia NASDAQ: NVDA and other partners to mobilize more than $500 billion for data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure. The initiative could generate fees from asset management, private credit and structured-finance products while broadening BlackRock’s role beyond traditional investing. NVIDIA's $500 Billion GPU Financing Deal Fuels Path Toward $270
• Positive Sentiment: Scale and asset growth remain key strengths. Reports highlight approximately $15.3 trillion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year AUM increase and improving profit margins. Continued growth in higher-margin ETFs and other products could support earnings and long-term shareholder returns. Larry Fink's BlackRock Just Crossed $15.3 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock-affiliated investors reportedly sold more than $16 million of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Dartmouth’s holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and other crypto ETFs declined in value. The developments reflect weaker crypto prices and could signal modest pressure on digital-asset flows, but they do not represent a direct sale of BlackRock’s corporate holdings. BlackRock ends the week dumping millions worth of these 2 cryptocurrencies
• Negative Sentiment: Competition is intensifying in ETFs. Corgi Invest plans to challenge BlackRock with a broad, low-fee lineup, while Goldman Sachs’ planned acquisition of NEOS would strengthen a rival Bitcoin income ETF platform.
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm is investigating possible securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds. The announcement is only an investigation—not a filed finding of wrongdoing—but it adds reputational and legal uncertainty. Rosen investor rights investigation

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.

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