Empower Advisory Group LLC Buys 352 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Empower Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 91.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 736 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $993,312,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,962 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 104,468.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 792,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,526,120,000 after purchasing an additional 791,874 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in BlackRock by 11.1% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,354,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,630,127,000 after purchasing an additional 435,358 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,990,052,000 after buying an additional 292,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 1st quarter worth about $161,918,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,019.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,047.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The company has a market capitalization of $155.09 billion, a PE ratio of 25.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $962.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $866.74. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $697.70 and a fifty-two week high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $10.91 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.