Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Acquires Shares of 4,906 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 4,906 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $5,029,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 85.2% in the 3rd quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 313 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 22.1% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 83 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 15 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 4.1% in the third quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 479 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $455,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $404,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,217 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $22,044,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on BLK shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Sunday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $988.02 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.03 billion, a PE ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.28. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,024.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $971.03. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released 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 firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $9.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.57%.

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.