BlackRock $BLK Shares Bought by State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 144,929 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,822 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned 0.09% of BlackRock worth $152,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in BlackRock by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,991,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $14,680,334,000 after buying an additional 227,192 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,143,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,281,641,000 after acquiring an additional 34,049 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in BlackRock by 72.5% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,005,358 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,104,122,000 after purchasing an additional 842,901 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 105,267.4% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,705,899 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,789,915,000 after acquiring an additional 1,704,280 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 73.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,313,350 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,243,059,000 after purchasing an additional 555,098 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on BLK. UBS Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,312.00 to $1,305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,302.59.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,041.18 on Friday. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94. The company has a quick ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a market cap of $161.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.77, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $1,109.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,080.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $11.78 by ($0.23). The business had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 15.36%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $11.46 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.59%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total value of $13,980,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at $8,394,113.20. This trade represents a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.98% 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.