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

Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. cut its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 776 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 24 shares during the period. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $647,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Emerald Advisors LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 200 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $163,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 764 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $439,000. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN bought a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK traded down $7.04 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $787.35. The company had a trading volume of 182,173 shares, compared to its average volume of 603,301. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $777.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $792.54. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $596.18 and a 1-year high of $845.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a current ratio of 5.32. The company has a market capitalization of $117.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $7.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were given a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BLK. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

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.