Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. Purchases 10 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. raised its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 277 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 10 shares during the period. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $263,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 81.5% in the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 22 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,120.00 to $1,220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Saturday, December 7th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,039.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 108,190 shares of company stock valued at $113,161,681. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $1,057.00. The company had a trading volume of 22,953 shares, compared to its average volume of 585,398. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,013.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $902.97. The stock has a market cap of $163.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month high of $1,082.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $5.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is presently 50.35%.

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.