L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Sells 271 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP lowered its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 40,290 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 271 shares during the period. BlackRock accounts for 4.1% of L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 4th largest holding. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $32,707,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Spreng Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in BlackRock by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Spreng Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after buying an additional 14 shares in the last quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC now owns 1,864 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after buying an additional 16 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $919,000. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $246,000. Finally, Inscription Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 1,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total transaction of $765,272.50. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,437 shares in the company, valued at $3,574,225.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028 over the last three months. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $719.00 to $793.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of BlackRock from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $708.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, December 15th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. BNP Paribas raised shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $885.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $720.00 to $818.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.73.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:BLK traded down $1.42 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $833.70. The company had a trading volume of 532,198 shares, compared to its average volume of 591,890. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $124.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $805.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $743.31. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 12th. The asset manager reported $9.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $8.84 by $0.82. The business had revenue of $4.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 30.81% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $8.93 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 39.81 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.00. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.88%.

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.