Titleist Asset Management LLC Purchases New Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Titleist Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 312 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BLK. IAG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Collier Financial purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BLK shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $950.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. UBS Group raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,103.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 in the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.7 %

BLK stock opened at $817.17 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $964.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $991.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,084.22. The firm has a market cap of $126.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 49.62%.

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.