Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 24 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,144 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 24 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BLK. United Bank lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the third quarter. United Bank now owns 1,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,064,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $334,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,310 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,789,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. 49 Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $253,000. Finally, Financial Council LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. The trade was 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 link. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of BLK opened at $950.43 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $147.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $980.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $988.41. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.62%.

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.