Joule Financial LLC Purchases New Shares in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Joule Financial LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 206 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in BlackRock in the second quarter worth $383,000. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 21.2% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 8,028 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,321,000 after acquiring an additional 1,406 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 3.1% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,416 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,115,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 5.0% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 10,459 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,235,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% during the second quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 131,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $103,355,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. The trade was a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,103.33.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.9 %

BLK opened at $1,004.23 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $1,027.33 and its 200 day moving average is $946.18. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,082.45. The stock has a market cap of $155.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $9.66 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.35%.

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.