Savant Capital LLC Cuts Position in BlackRock $BLK

Savant Capital LLC reduced its holdings in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,446 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 2,189 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $7,813,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Welch Group LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 1.2% in the second quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 760 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $797,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. lifted its position in BlackRock by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 340 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $357,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. CNB Bank boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 103 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 9 shares during the period. McLean Asset Management Corp raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 3.9% during the second quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Co. of Oklahoma boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Oklahoma now owns 2,023 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after purchasing an additional 10 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BLK. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Argus increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,180.00 to $1,170.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,299.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total value of $13,980,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at $8,394,113.20. The trade was a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,081.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $773.74 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1,130.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,068.02. The company has a market cap of $167.50 billion, a PE ratio of 27.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.78 by ($0.23). BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.36% and a net margin of 26.64%.The business had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $11.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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.