D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 27.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,609 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,857 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $8,174,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 81.5% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on BLK. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE BLK opened at $1,026.24 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $724.54 and a 12 month high of $1,068.34. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $989.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $884.21. The stock has a market cap of $158.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.