Townsquare Capital LLC Purchases 600 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,673 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $8,891,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BLK. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,712,493,000 after buying an additional 68,405 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,072,787,000 after acquiring an additional 190,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,450,475,000 after acquiring an additional 26,485 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,356,357,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in BlackRock by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,102,643 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,130,330,000 after purchasing an additional 160,323 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $879.39 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a one year low of $745.55 and a one year high of $1,084.22. 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 $136.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $942.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $987.97.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $9.81 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 49.62%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price 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. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $950.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,096.92.

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.