New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Increases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lifted its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.4% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,289 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Emerald Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $851,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 25.0% during the 4th quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 200 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $439,000. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was 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 directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 20th. The stock was 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 owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE BLK traded up $6.19 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $787.32. The stock had a trading volume of 769,459 shares, compared to its average volume of 564,991. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $779.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $792.90. The company has a market cap of $117.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.34. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $845.00. The company has a quick ratio of 5.32, a current ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $7.93 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.