Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 528 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,483 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 528 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $7,558,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Altus Wealth Group LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $215,000. RFG Advisory LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 1,248 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Finally, WealthPlan Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter valued at $277,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,351.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, January 16th. CICC Research raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,250.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,514.00 to $1,550.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.11.

More BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock formally expanded into DeFi by listing its tokenized Treasury fund (BUIDL) on Uniswap and enabling on‑chain trading — a strategic move that broadens distribution channels for BlackRock’s digital‑asset products and could support future fee/AUM growth. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Income and earnings fundamentals: company reporting and corporate actions (recent EPS beat and an increased quarterly dividend to $5.73) provide support for income‑oriented investors and justify parts of the stock’s elevated multiple. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: 13F / portfolio moves: recent SEC filings show large BlackRock fund repositioning (additions to IVV, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN and new sizable positions in tickers like Q, SOLS, LXP) — signals scale and active management but are informational about fund flows rather than an immediate BLK earnings driver. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Routine ownership disclosures: filings around a ~5% voting stake in BAWAG Group were posted — standard large‑investor activity with limited direct impact on BlackRock’s core management fees. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: COO Robert Goldstein executed sizeable open‑market sales (Feb. 10–11; Form 4 filed). Large insider sales can weigh on near‑term sentiment even when they’re for diversification or tax planning. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Reported private‑credit loss: a WSJ report about a ~$400M loss linked to fake invoices in a BlackRock unit highlights execution and due‑diligence risk in private markets and can pressure the multiple investors assign to alternatives. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Crypto headwinds: weakening crypto prices, ETF outflows and reports that some BlackRock crypto portfolios have trimmed BTC/ETH exposure could limit near‑term AUM and fee growth from digital‑asset offerings despite the Uniswap announcement. Read More.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $1,071.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $166.26 billion, a PE ratio of 30.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.47. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1,093.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1,105.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a current ratio of 3.33.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.55 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $6.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.80 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 22.93% and a return on equity of 15.14%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $11.93 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 58.84%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Stephen Cohen sold 2,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,073.87, for a total value of $2,339,962.73. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,543 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,026,331.41. This represents a 24.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,125.00, for a total value of $22,500,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 61,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $69,630,750. This trade represents a 24.42% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 109,967 shares of company stock worth $122,487,380 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

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.