Candriam S.C.A. Grows Stake in BlackRock $BLK

Candriam S.C.A. boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) by 68.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,567 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,337 shares during the quarter. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $21,581,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Garde Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 200.0% in the second quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 27 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 107.1% in the 2nd quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 29 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 100.0% in the 1st quarter. Game Plan Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 87.5% during the 2nd quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 30 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 14 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mid American Wealth Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter valued at about $34,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,394.00 to $1,456.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Loop Capital set a $1,255.00 target price on BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. BNP Paribas Exane boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,160.00 to $1,265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,310.00 to $1,360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,303.41.

BlackRock Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of BLK opened at $1,068.57 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,128.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,073.03. The company has a market cap of $165.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.48. 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 has a twelve month low of $773.74 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94.

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

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director Rachel Lord sold 12,000 shares of the 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,205 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,394,113.20. This represents a 62.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

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.