New York State Teachers Retirement System Lowers Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 121,005 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 4,670 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.08% of BlackRock worth $124,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Collier Financial bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 3rd quarter worth $37,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Sunday, February 9th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $980.48 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $1,021.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $971.97. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,084.22. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $151.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, 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 transaction of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 110,190 shares of company stock valued at $115,163,141 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.