Rakuten Securities Inc. Makes New Investment in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Tyler Stone Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 96.0% in the fourth quarter. Blue Bell Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $747.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $805.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $755.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $111.27 billion, a PE ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The firm had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $7.93 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at $13,910,292.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total value of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,910,292.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,366,142.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen upgraded BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. 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, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $845.42.

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.