Federated Hermes Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Federated Hermes Inc. decreased its position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 15.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 103,552 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 19,388 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $81,529,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BLK. XML Financial LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.6% during the second quarter. XML Financial LLC now owns 473 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $372,000 after buying an additional 12 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.1% during the second quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 226 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $177,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Forza Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% during the second quarter. Forza Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $822,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.4% during the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 311 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Finally, Tortoise Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 17.1% during the second quarter. Tortoise Investment Management LLC now owns 89 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 13 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $885.73 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $857.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $814.37. The company has a market cap of $131.20 billion, a PE ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $903.46. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.28 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.30%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.84%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at $298,272,703.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total value of $1,289,224.48. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,732 shares in the company, valued at $4,826,802.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at $298,272,703.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,042 shares of company stock worth $79,387,117 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BLK. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $985.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,025.00 to $1,013.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 11th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $945.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $902.13.

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.