Zullo Investment Group Inc. Sells 9 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Zullo Investment Group Inc. reduced its holdings in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 2.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 364 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 9 shares during the quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 389 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $408,000 after buying an additional 10 shares during the last quarter. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 23,057 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $24,193,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,505,000 after buying an additional 348 shares during the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 3,380 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,546,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDS Planning Inc grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 944 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $990,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Fabrizio Freda sold 4,434 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.81, for a total transaction of $4,978,539.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,506 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,936,571.86. The trade was a 55.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 14,828 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,122.28, for a total value of $16,641,167.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 263,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $296,002,472.28. This represents a 5.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,494 shares of company stock worth $74,694,573 over the last three months. 1.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Stock Down 3.0%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,132.12 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,134.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1,034.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $773.74 and a 12-month high of $1,184.13. The company has a current ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. The business had revenue of $5.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.40 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $10.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 50.39%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BLK. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $1,280.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,163.00 to $1,312.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,224.00 to $1,362.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,258.56.

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.