Robert Goldstein Sells 5,293 Shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Stock

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) COO Robert Goldstein sold 5,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,084.22, for a total value of $5,738,776.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 46,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,074,700.70. This trade represents a 10.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $1,071.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 3.33 and a quick ratio of 3.33. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,093.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,105.83. The firm has a market cap of $166.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.25, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.47. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $773.74 and a 1 year high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.55 by $0.61. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.14% and a net margin of 22.93%.The firm had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $11.93 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 6th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.84%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,393 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,561,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 1,421 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,521,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Burton Enright Welch bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $217,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 22,806 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,410,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in BlackRock by 15,989.1% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 65,000 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $69,572,000 after purchasing an additional 64,596 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on BLK. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,296.00 to $1,380.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Evercore reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 12th. TD Cowen lowered BlackRock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $1,280.00 target price on BlackRock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.11.

BlackRock News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock formally expanded into DeFi by listing its tokenized Treasury fund (BUIDL) on Uniswap and enabling on‑chain trading — a strategic move that broadens distribution channels for BlackRock’s digital‑asset products and could support future fee/AUM growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Income and earnings fundamentals: company reporting and corporate actions (recent EPS beat and an increased quarterly dividend to $5.73) provide support for income‑oriented investors and justify parts of the stock’s elevated multiple. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: 13F / portfolio moves: recent SEC filings show large BlackRock fund repositioning (additions to IVV, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN and new sizable positions in tickers like Q, SOLS, LXP) — signals scale and active management but are informational about fund flows rather than an immediate BLK earnings driver. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Routine ownership disclosures: filings around a ~5% voting stake in BAWAG Group were posted — standard large‑investor activity with limited direct impact on BlackRock’s core management fees. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Robert Goldstein executed sizeable open‑market sales (Feb. 10–11; Form 4 filed). Large insider sales can weigh on near‑term sentiment even when they’re for diversification or tax planning. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported private‑credit loss: a WSJ report about a ~$400M loss linked to fake invoices in a BlackRock unit highlights execution and due‑diligence risk in private markets and can pressure the multiple investors assign to alternatives. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto headwinds: weakening crypto prices, ETF outflows and reports that some BlackRock crypto portfolios have trimmed BTC/ETH exposure could limit near‑term AUM and fee growth from digital‑asset offerings despite the Uniswap announcement. Read More.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.