Clarius Group LLC Increases Stake in BlackRock $BLK

Clarius Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 834 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the quarter. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $875,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. McLean Asset Management Corp increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% in the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.3% in the second quarter. TOWER TRUST & INVESTMENT Co now owns 799 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $838,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% in the second quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC now owns 223 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $234,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 8.8% in the second quarter. Ameriflex Group Inc. now owns 123 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $127,000 after buying an additional 10 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total value of $16,641,167.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 263,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $296,002,472.28. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total value of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,936,571.86. This trade represents a 55.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $990.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $980.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,213.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,160.75 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1,129.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,028.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,183.50.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The company had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.39%.

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.