Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 7,800 BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,800 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $7,383,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Fairway Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 76.5% in the 1st quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Curio Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Cedar Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company's stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of BlackRock stock traded up $5.28 on Monday, reaching $1,106.92. 158,800 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 691,732. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,108.92. The company has a current ratio of 4.34, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $996.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $970.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.57% and a net margin of 30.09%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.81 earnings per share. BlackRock's revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 5th were paid a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.88%. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $912.50, for a total value of $9,125,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 66,034 shares in the company, valued at $60,256,025. The trade was a 13.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $980.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $1,164.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $959.00 to $1,210.00 in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,100.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $1,132.29.

BlackRock 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.