Flputnam Investment Management Co. Takes $16.02 Million Position in BlackRock $BLK

Flputnam Investment Management Co. bought a new position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 16,660 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $16,019,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Birchbrook Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Basepoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. BNP Paribas Exane upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $1,258.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $1,260.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,311.06.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,172.20 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $1,053.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,042.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 3.59 and a current ratio of 3.59. The company has a market capitalization of $181.54 billion, a PE ratio of 28.02, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.42. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $917.39 and a 52 week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The company had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $12.05 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 55.63 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.78%.

BlackRock News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure financing could create a major growth opportunity. BlackRock is among the financial firms working with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and other partners to mobilize more than $500 billion for data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure. The initiative could generate fees from asset management, private credit and structured-finance products while broadening BlackRock’s role beyond traditional investing. NVIDIA’s $500 Billion GPU Financing Deal Fuels Path Toward $270
• Positive Sentiment: Scale and asset growth remain key strengths. Reports highlight approximately $15.3 trillion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year AUM increase and improving profit margins. Continued growth in higher-margin ETFs and other products could support earnings and long-term shareholder returns. Larry Fink’s BlackRock Just Crossed $15.3 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock-affiliated investors reportedly sold more than $16 million of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Dartmouth’s holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and other crypto ETFs declined in value. The developments reflect weaker crypto prices and could signal modest pressure on digital-asset flows, but they do not represent a direct sale of BlackRock’s corporate holdings. BlackRock ends the week dumping millions worth of these 2 cryptocurrencies
• Negative Sentiment: Competition is intensifying in ETFs. Corgi Invest plans to challenge BlackRock with a broad, low-fee lineup, while Goldman Sachs’ planned acquisition of NEOS would strengthen a rival Bitcoin income ETF platform.
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm is investigating possible securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds. The announcement is only an investigation—not a filed finding of wrongdoing—but it adds reputational and legal uncertainty. Rosen investor rights investigation

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.