Hills Bank & Trust Co Acquires New Stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

Hills Bank & Trust Co acquired a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,923 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $1,820,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 65,396 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $67,038,000 after purchasing an additional 4,210 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $15,307,000. Community Financial Services Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 17.2% during the 1st quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 5,702 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $5,397,000 after buying an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the first quarter worth approximately $568,000. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.8% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 17,057 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $16,144,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $912.50, for a total transaction of $9,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 66,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,256,025. The trade was a 13.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.98% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target 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. Citigroup lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,100.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $1,102.08.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK traded up $2.71 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $1,050.53. The company had a trading volume of 528,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 694,081. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The stock has a market cap of $162.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a PEG ratio of 3.18 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 firm's 50 day simple moving average is $962.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $968.13.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.57% and a net margin of 30.09%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $9.81 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were given a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 5th. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.