Narwhal Capital Management Buys New Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Narwhal Capital Management bought a new position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 21,714 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $22,260,000. BlackRock comprises 2.0% of Narwhal Capital Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 16.2% in the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 388 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $305,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 36.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 787 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 21,864 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $17,214,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the second quarter valued at $13,057,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in BlackRock by 20.6% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 64,715 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $50,951,000 after purchasing an additional 11,072 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Friday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,020.19 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $158.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month high of $1,082.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $1,024.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $954.96.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th were issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 48.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 100,190 shares of company stock worth $104,436,741 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.