Assetmark Inc. Purchases 569 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,769 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $26,706,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,062,677 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,051,846,000 after purchasing an additional 221,123 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,264,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,705,193,000 after buying an additional 33,752 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 5,190.3% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,490,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,876,618,000 after buying an additional 5,386,640 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in BlackRock by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,197,904 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,563,524,000 after buying an additional 149,902 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in BlackRock by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,838,937 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,108,968,000 after buying an additional 12,019 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total transaction of $9,233,627.40. Following the sale, the president directly owned 210,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $222,082,527.60. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total value of $35,613,645.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $242,168,583.80. This represents a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $1,165.00 to $1,364.00 in a research report on Thursday. Barclays increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,340.00 to $1,450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen decreased their target price on BlackRock from $1,238.00 to $1,105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,304.29.

Key Headlines Impacting BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock reported record second-quarter results, with revenue and earnings beating Wall Street estimates and client assets reaching a new high, highlighting strong operating momentum. Blackrock CEO Says Client Demand Has ‘Never Been Greater’ as Assets Reach Record $15.3 Trillion
• Positive Sentiment: BMO Capital Markets raised its price target on BlackRock to $1,300 and kept an outperform view, while other firms also lifted targets after the earnings beat, signaling rising Street confidence. BlackRock price target raised by BMO Capital Markets
• Positive Sentiment: J.P. Morgan upgraded BlackRock to overweight/buy-equivalent and Bank of America reiterated a buy rating, citing growth opportunities in tokenization, private markets, direct indexing, and automation-led margin expansion. JP Morgan upgrades BlackRock to buy-equivalent after Q2 earnings
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s iShares business surpassed $6 trillion in assets, and Bitcoin ETF inflows continued to support the firm’s fast-growing ETF platform, reinforcing a strong fee-based growth story. BlackRock iShares Surpasses $6 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles highlighted BlackRock’s expanding ownership stakes in other companies and broader market commentary, but these items are not likely to materially move BLK shares on their own.

BlackRock Stock Down 1.4%

BLK opened at $1,072.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,033.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,043.13. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $917.39 and a 52 week high of $1,219.94. The company has a market capitalization of $166.20 billion, a PE ratio of 25.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 4.09, a current ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.01% and a net margin of 24.09%.The business’s revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $12.05 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 55.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.53%.

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.