BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Shares Sold by Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC

Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 31.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 754 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 340 shares during the period. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $773,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,712,493,000 after acquiring an additional 68,405 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,072,787,000 after purchasing an additional 190,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $2,356,357,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 17.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,102,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,130,330,000 after buying an additional 160,323 shares during the period. 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 Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % 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 have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $866.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $134.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $934.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $986.36. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.81 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 50.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a report on Monday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,077.08.

About BlackRock

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.