D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 27.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,609 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 1,857 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $8,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after acquiring an additional 226,135 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in BlackRock by 2.7% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 329,337 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $311,293,000 after purchasing an additional 8,620 shares in the last quarter. Capital Square LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter valued at about $209,000. Private Trust Co. NA increased its position in BlackRock by 9.0% in the third quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 1,188 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,128,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hancock Whitney Corp raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 5.9% in the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 467 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $443,000 after buying an additional 26 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This trade represents a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,026.24 on Wednesday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $724.54 and a 12 month high of $1,068.34. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $989.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $884.21. The company has a market cap of $158.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.33, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30.

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

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.