IFP Advisors Inc Buys 309 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,956 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the quarter. IFP Advisors Inc’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Collier Financial bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on BLK. StockNews.com began coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Barclays cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $958.29 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.82, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1,007.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $980.38. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.