Kestra Investment Management LLC Buys Shares of 229 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Kestra Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 229 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,244,608,000 after purchasing an additional 226,135 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,081,561,000 after acquiring an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 2.9% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,762,000 after acquiring an additional 46,728 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,197,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $942,640,000 after acquiring an additional 22,311 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $993,312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044,962 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK opened at $1,020.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $994.93 and a 200 day moving average of $888.81. 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, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $742.22 and a fifty-two week high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

About BlackRock

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.