Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3,018.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,150 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,049 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $3,229,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in BlackRock by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,681,472,000 after purchasing an additional 42,757 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,663,330,000 after acquiring an additional 30,182 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 10.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after buying an additional 226,135 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,081,561,000 after buying an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $993,312,000 after buying an additional 1,044,962 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BLK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of 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. 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 research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK opened at $973.22 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.17, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average of $1,019.28 and a 200 day moving average of $973.49. 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by 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.