Patron Partners LLC Sells 200 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Patron Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 24.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 633 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Patron Partners LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $649,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Columbus Macro LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,290,000. Trust Point Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Trust Point Inc. now owns 1,352 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,386,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. Matisse Capital purchased a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $964,000. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 15,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $15,422,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the period. Finally, Optas LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at about $205,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 110,190 shares of company stock worth $115,163,141. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BLK. Barclays dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup increased their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock opened at $1,014.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1,026.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $963.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $157.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The firm had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company’s revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $9.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.57%.

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.