Austin Private Wealth LLC Lowers Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Austin Private Wealth LLC decreased its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 457 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 33 shares during the quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $434,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,248 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 219.5% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after buying an additional 30,274 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new position in BlackRock during the 1st quarter worth approximately $161,918,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 62.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,804,000 after acquiring an additional 884 shares during the period. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the first quarter valued at approximately $759,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Argus increased their target price on BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $995.31.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK traded up $18.26 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $1,009.76. 68,155 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 569,058. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $942.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $853.97. The company has a market cap of $149.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.47, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $646.91 and a 52 week high of $1,032.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $10.91 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 35,061 shares of company stock valued at $30,734,840 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.