BlackRock $BLK Shares Sold by Eastern Bank

Eastern Bank trimmed its holdings in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 47,466 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 1,968 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $55,339,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,991,264 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $14,680,334,000 after acquiring an additional 227,192 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,143,429 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,281,641,000 after purchasing an additional 34,049 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter worth $2,644,007,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 842,901 shares during the period. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 105,267.4% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,705,899 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,789,915,000 after buying an additional 1,704,280 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,218.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,486.00 to $1,514.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,315.35.

BlackRock News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock is refocusing its AI investment stance away from large-cap tech toward energy and infrastructure stocks — a tactical shift that could reweight product offerings and capture investor demand in sectors positioned to benefit from AI-driven capex. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Larry Fink is an interim co-chair of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, keeping BlackRock prominently positioned in global policy and capital-markets conversations — a reputational positive that can help business development and client access. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect Q4 results to be supported by inflows and AUM growth, which would underpin revenue and fee income — a fundamental tailwind for earnings per share. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Regulatory filings show small changes in BlackRock’s reported holdings in companies such as Orion and Stora Enso (crossing regulatory thresholds in recent days) — routine disclosures that have limited immediate market impact. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock moved roughly $339M in bitcoin positions recently — a meaningful crypto flow but not large enough relative to its total AUM to shift broad fundamentals. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) notes that bank earnings are dominating headlines, which can temporarily divert investor attention from asset managers like BlackRock. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple outlets report BlackRock will cut around 250 jobs (roughly 1% of staff) as part of a restructuring to improve efficiency — negative near-term headline risk, potential costs from severance, and investor concern about growth strategy execution. Reuters coverage noted the cuts as part of a routine round of layoffs. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Media coverage of the layoffs (e.g., New York Post) has already coincided with an intraday share drop, showing immediate market sensitivity to headcount reductions and growth concerns. Article Title

BlackRock Trading Down 0.1%

BlackRock stock opened at $1,088.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $168.80 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.47. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,068.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,103.57. The company has a current ratio of 3.33, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $11.78 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 14.80%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $11.46 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.59%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, CFO Martin Small sold 1,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,043.38, for a total transaction of $1,312,572.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 6,209 shares in the company, valued at $6,478,346.42. This trade represents a 16.85% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock 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 owned 7,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,394,113.20. This represents a 62.48% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.98% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.