Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC Sells 150 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 9.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,469 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,506,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Collier Financial purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $947.96 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $146.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.57, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $994.60 and its 200 day moving average is $985.86. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BLK. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

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.