Blue Chip Partners LLC Acquires 699 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Blue Chip Partners LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,205 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 699 shares during the period. BlackRock comprises approximately 2.0% of Blue Chip Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Blue Chip Partners LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $19,649,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in BlackRock by 3.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,369,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,178,048,000 after purchasing an additional 104,844 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,329,550 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,148,586,000 after purchasing an additional 35,161 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 22.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,105,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,361,064,000 after acquiring an additional 379,631 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 21.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,745,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,128,544,000 after acquiring an additional 307,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 5.0% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,568,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,014,287,000 after acquiring an additional 74,974 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.7 %

BLK traded up $5.23 on Friday, hitting $762.88. The company had a trading volume of 447,939 shares, compared to its average volume of 683,111. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $845.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $802.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $761.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $7.93 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total transaction of $2,669,833.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 70,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,972,959.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total transaction of $2,669,833.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 70,378 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,972,959.58. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,910,292.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 82,511 shares of company stock valued at $66,778,367. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.