Venturi Wealth Management LLC Acquires 282 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 18.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,806 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 282 shares during the quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,852,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,681,472,000 after acquiring an additional 42,757 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,663,330,000 after purchasing an additional 30,182 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after purchasing an additional 226,135 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,081,561,000 after buying an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $993,312,000 after buying an additional 1,044,962 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $973.22 on Tuesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1,019.28 and a 200-day moving average of $974.18. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $150.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 49.62%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 110,190 shares of company stock valued at $115,163,141. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.