Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,740 BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,740 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $1,164,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,335,602 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,363,708,000 after purchasing an additional 430,524 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,174,621 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,249,634,000 after acquiring an additional 129,335 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,664,331 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,778,039,000 after acquiring an additional 41,280 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,915,197 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,463,536,000 after acquiring an additional 15,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% during the first quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,842,425 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,232,804,000 after acquiring an additional 57,862 shares during the last quarter. 77.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $770.00 to $835.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $780.00 to $770.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 3rd. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $928.00 to $921.00 in a research report on Sunday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $780.00 to $820.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $780.00 to $785.00 in a research report on Monday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $767.69.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.4 %

BLK stock opened at $706.81 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $105.53 billion, a PE ratio of 20.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.29. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $503.12 and a 12 month high of $785.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $705.78 and its 200 day moving average is $681.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 4.21 and a quick ratio of 4.21.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 14th. The asset manager reported $9.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.52 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $4.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.90% and a return on equity of 14.29%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $7.36 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 35.48 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 8th will be given a dividend of $5.00 per share. This represents a $20.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 2,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $733.82, for a total value of $1,525,611.78. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,160 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,520,331.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 20,200 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $742.04, for a total value of $14,989,208.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 464,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $344,399,315. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 2,079 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $733.82, for a total transaction of $1,525,611.78. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,160 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,520,331.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.96% 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.