Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey Buys 1,693 Shares of BlackRock $BLK

Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey raised its stake in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,167 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,693 shares during the period. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $24,308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Welch Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank grew its holdings in BlackRock by 9.6% during the second quarter. CNB Bank now owns 103 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares during the period. Magellan Asset Management Ltd lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 14.3% during the 2nd quarter. Magellan Asset Management Ltd now owns 72 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 9 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McLean Asset Management Corp raised its stake in BlackRock by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 266 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. Zacks Research downgraded BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. UBS Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Argus increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,165.00 to $1,330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,303.41.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,165.04, for a total value of $13,980,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,394,113.20. The trade was a 62.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,093.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.26 billion, a PE ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 4.04 and a current ratio of 4.04. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $1,129.00 and a 200 day moving average of $1,073.06.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.78 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.36% and a net margin of 26.64%.BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $11.46 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS 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.