Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Acquires Shares of 62 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 62 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $64,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.7% during the third quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $263,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Farmers & Merchants Trust Co of Chambersburg PA now owns 1,279 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 368 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Noesis Capital Mangement Corp increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.9% during the third quarter. Noesis Capital Mangement Corp now owns 1,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $950.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market cap of $147.56 billion, a PE ratio of 22.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $980.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $988.41.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $9.66 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 in the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.