HBW Advisory Services LLC Sells 86 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

HBW Advisory Services LLC lowered its holdings in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 19.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 357 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 86 shares during the quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $366,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 100.0% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 81.5% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $955.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. The company has a market cap of $147.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.58, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,082.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,030.97 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $939.26.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $10.91 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,245.00 to $1,261.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,070.08.

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.