Agate Pass Investment Management LLC Acquires 117 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Agate Pass Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 26.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 564 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Agate Pass Investment Management LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 208.3% during the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price target (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE BLK traded down $2.67 on Thursday, hitting $784.78. 115,647 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 602,156. The company has a current ratio of 5.32, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a market cap of $116.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.90, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $777.90 and a 200-day moving average of $792.50. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $596.18 and a 12 month high of $845.00.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

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.