Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. Takes $234,000 Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 288 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,369,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,178,048,000 after acquiring an additional 104,844 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased 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 valued at $2,148,586,000 after purchasing an additional 35,161 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 22.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,105,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,361,064,000 after purchasing an additional 379,631 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,015,535 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,636,212,000 after purchasing an additional 47,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in BlackRock by 21.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 307,516 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $335,425,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Stephen Cohen sold 950 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $805.55, for a total value of $765,272.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,574,225.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 72,057 shares of company stock worth $58,575,704. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of BLK stock traded up $6.91 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $763.91. The company had a trading volume of 558,283 shares, compared to its average volume of 689,289. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00. The company has a market capitalization of $113.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $797.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $766.29.

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

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.