Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 27,098 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its position in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 18.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 116,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 27,098 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $112,414,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Birchbrook Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s model portfolio team said a 1% to 2% Bitcoin allocation can be a reasonable diversifier, and related coverage highlights BlackRock’s growing role in digital assets, including support for institutional adoption of Bitcoin and the firm’s IBIT ETF. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock Canada announced final June cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF, a routine fund-income update that reinforces steady ETF operations and product scale. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s Emergency Savings Initiative reported nearly $8 billion in savings generated and reach to more than 22 million Americans, highlighting another scale-driven, reputation-building initiative. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas Exane raised its price target on BlackRock to $1,350 and kept an outperform rating, signaling continued analyst confidence. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock also received additional media attention around Bitcoin and AI, but these headlines mostly reflect the firm’s evolving investment commentary rather than a direct financial catalyst for BLK stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor worries about private-credit redemptions appear to be weighing on sentiment, with BlackRock-linked redemption caps in some private-credit funds feeding broader concern about liquidity in the asset-management space. Article Title

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the 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 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 12.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $981.41 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $152.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.63, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a quick ratio of 4.09, a current ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $1,048.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,050.96. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $917.39 and a 52 week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $12.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.40 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.56 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 24.40%.The company’s revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $9.64 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 52.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. Weiss Ratings raised BlackRock from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,351.00 to $1,199.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,368.00 to $1,393.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. TD Cowen cut their price objective 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. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,290.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,267.39.

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.