Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co Invests $912,000 in BlackRock $BLK

Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co acquired a new stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 948 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $912,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 920,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $985,331,000 after purchasing an additional 7,457 shares during the last quarter. TCV Trust & Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $20,279,000. Texas Yale Capital Corp. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 32.2% during the 4th quarter. Texas Yale Capital Corp. now owns 5,764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,169,000 after acquiring an additional 1,405 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 94.6% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 26,828 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,720,000 after acquiring an additional 13,040 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,838,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,108,968,000 after purchasing an additional 12,019 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,145.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,351.00 to $1,199.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,238.00 to $1,105.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,304.29.

Key Headlines Impacting BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock-led infrastructure vehicles completed the acquisition of Aligned Data Centers and are committing an additional $5 billion in growth capital, reinforcing BLK’s exposure to the AI buildout and alternative-asset fee opportunities. AIP, MGX and BlackRock’s GIP Close Acquisition of Aligned Data Centers
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock Canada announced monthly July cash distributions across a wide slate of iShares ETFs, underscoring the strength and recurring income appeal of its ETF franchise. BlackRock Canada Announces July Cash Distributions for the iShares ETFs
• Positive Sentiment: Investor interest in BlackRock’s Ethereum products remains strong, with reports of fresh inflows into ETHA and a new, similar ether fund that adds another monetizable product in digital assets. Forget ETHA. iShares’ Other Ether Fund Is Nearly Identical, Except It Pays You
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Larry Fink’s comments that AI growth is constrained by electricity, plus New York’s data-center moratorium, keep attention on power bottlenecks for the AI infrastructure theme BlackRock is investing behind. Larry Fink Says AI Needs More Electricity. Google Is Trying To Need Less Of It.
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock’s ETF and asset-management announcements, including distribution updates and product coverage, are broadly supportive but not likely to move the stock on their own. BlackRock® Canada Announces July Cash Distributions for the iShares® ETFs
• Negative Sentiment: Some recent headlines note BlackRock reducing a few holdings and broader financial-sector weakness, which may add mild pressure, but these appear less important than the positive infrastructure and ETF news. Major Shareholder Announcement

BlackRock Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,037.31 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 4.09. The business’s 50 day moving average is $1,032.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1,042.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.79, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.43. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $917.39 and a 1-year high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.01% and a net margin of 24.09%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $12.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.63 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were given a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total transaction of $35,613,645.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $242,168,583.80. The trade was a 12.82% 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, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total value of $9,233,627.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 210,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $222,082,527.60. The trade was a 3.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Company 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.