Perennial Investment Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in BlackRock $BLK

Perennial Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 714 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. Advisors Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter worth $33,847,000. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in BlackRock by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 920,578 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $985,331,000 after acquiring an additional 7,457 shares during the last quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,185,000. Haverford Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $264,500,000. Finally, Liberty One Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 30.7% in the first quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 4,861 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,675,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $1,258.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of BlackRock from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $1,389.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $1,311.06.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has processed more than $5 billion in tax-deferred conversions from directly held Bitcoin. Reducing the minimum conversion size from $25 million to $1 million could make the product accessible to more wealthy investors and institutions, potentially supporting assets under management and fee revenue. However, these transactions transfer existing Bitcoin into the ETF rather than representing equivalent new cash inflows. Bitcoin to $100K? BlackRock’s $5B ETF Shift Pulls More BTC Into Wall Street
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain broadly optimistic about BlackRock’s growth prospects and target price, despite the shares’ strong multiyear advance. What Are Wall Street Analysts’ Target Price for BlackRock Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock named Jessica Tan to lead its global product unit, a management change that could influence future product development and distribution but whose financial impact is not yet clear. BlackRock names Jessica Tan to head global product unit
• Neutral Sentiment: The company announced final August cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. The announcement is routine and primarily affects fund investors rather than BlackRock’s corporate earnings. BlackRock Canada Announces Final August Cash Distributions
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm said it is investigating potential securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds, alleging that the company may have issued materially misleading business information. The announcement does not establish wrongdoing, but it introduces potential legal, reputational and financial risk. BlackRock Investor News: Rosen Law Firm Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: One valuation review says BlackRock now trades near fair value on intrinsic estimates and looks expensive on earnings multiples after an approximately 82% three-year return, limiting near-term upside unless earnings and fee growth accelerate. BlackRock Stock Looks Fully Valued After an 82% Run

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,174.17 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 3.59, a quick ratio of 3.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $1,075.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,045.98. The company has a market capitalization of $181.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.42. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $917.39 and a twelve month high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. The business had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The company’s revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $12.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 8th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.