Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Position in BlackRock $BLK

Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 919.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,101 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the quarter. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% in the fourth 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. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at $98,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $1,389.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Thursday, July 16th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Weiss Ratings raised BlackRock from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,145.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,304.29.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,037.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $160.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $1,032.09 and a 200 day moving average of $1,042.37. The company has a current ratio of 4.09, a quick ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The company had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.01% and a net margin of 24.09%.BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $12.05 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 55.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

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

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 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.