First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA Boosts Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA raised its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,080 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 14 shares during the quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 27,092 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $25,724,000 after acquiring an additional 614 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,338 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,169,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 219.5% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after buying an additional 30,274 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.7% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 13,862 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,162,000 after buying an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 62.8% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after acquiring an additional 884 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK traded up $4.24 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $1,030.72. 17,264 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 577,682. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $159.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $725.86 and a 12-month high of $1,068.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $989.43 and a 200 day moving average of $884.21.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $10.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.35%.

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.