Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. Acquires 48 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 706 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,712,493,000 after purchasing an additional 68,405 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,072,787,000 after buying an additional 190,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $2,356,357,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,102,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,130,330,000 after acquiring an additional 160,323 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Down 4.5 %

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $856.99 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The stock has a market cap of $133.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $944.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $988.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on BLK shares. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Sunday, April 6th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Barclays cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $950.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,099.62.

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.