Palumbo Wealth Management LLC Sells 3,743 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Palumbo Wealth Management LLC lessened its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLKFree Report) by 89.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 425 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,743 shares during the quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $454,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1,962.0% during the 2nd quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 792,494 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $831,524,000 after purchasing an additional 754,060 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 217.5% during the 3rd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 619,492 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $722,247,000 after purchasing an additional 424,388 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 29,043.2% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 245,094 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $285,748,000 after purchasing an additional 244,253 shares during the period. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 547,249 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $645,354,000 after purchasing an additional 154,907 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 13.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,213,561 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,414,854,000 after purchasing an additional 143,126 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $956.52 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 2.98 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $1,023.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,073.39. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $799.15 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94. The firm has a market cap of $148.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.48.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLKGet Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.55 by $0.61. BlackRock had a net margin of 22.93% and a return on equity of 14.78%. The business had revenue of $7.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $11.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 23.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th were given a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,296.00 to $1,380.00 in a report on Thursday, January 15th. UBS Group upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $1,280.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Evercore dropped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,235.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold 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 $1,291.44.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on BLK

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, CFO Martin Small sold 27,047 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,171.14, for a total transaction of $31,675,823.58. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 10,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,363,724.98. This represents a 71.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,069.56, for a total transaction of $240,651.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,661 shares in the company, valued at $6,054,779.16. This represents a 3.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 111,319 shares of company stock valued at $123,999,249 over the last three months. 1.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

BlackRock Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

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