Gold Investment Management Ltd. Acquires 22 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Gold Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,192 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $2,247,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 138,682.5% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after purchasing an additional 633,779 shares in the last quarter. Amundi bought a new stake in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $528,792,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $343,976,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $330,662,000. Finally, National Pension Service acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $322,097,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. 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. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $928.74 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $983.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $986.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market cap of $144.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $9.66 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is 49.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at $3,531,656.40. This trade represents a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About BlackRock

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.