SevenBridge Financial Group LLC Has $1.65 Million Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

SevenBridge Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 27.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,671 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. SevenBridge Financial Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,651,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth about $2,356,357,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 138,682.5% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after buying an additional 633,779 shares during the period. Amundi bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at $528,792,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $343,976,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth about $330,662,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $944.75 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $146.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $745.55 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The business has a 50-day moving average of $976.19 and a 200-day moving average of $993.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $9.66 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.62%.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have 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 company insiders.

BlackRock 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.