WINTON GROUP Ltd Grows Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

WINTON GROUP Ltd boosted its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 90.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 614 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 291 shares during the quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $629,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Collier Financial acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Atwood & Palmer Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Trading Down 2.1 %

BLK opened at $947.48 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $978.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $991.44. The firm has a market cap of $147.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

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

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were given a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.62%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total value of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.