Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Purchases 25 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 4.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 602 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 25 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 25.0% in the 4th quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 200 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $163,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Zhang Financial LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 24.0% during the first quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 883 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $736,000 after buying an additional 171 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in BlackRock by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 237,740 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $192,997,000 after buying an additional 1,647 shares in the last quarter. Farrow Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $2,228,000. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,945,000 after acquiring an additional 1,248 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BLK shares. Argus upped their price objective on BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $912.00 to $937.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $881.47.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $901.81 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $839.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $808.90. The stock has a market cap of $134.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.32. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $903.46.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The firm had revenue of $4.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $9.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.34 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 9th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 9th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total value of $22,529,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,407,041.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,272,703.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total transaction of $22,529,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,407,041.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 93,042 shares of company stock valued at $79,387,117 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.