Sunbelt Securities Inc. Sells 17 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Sunbelt Securities Inc. reduced its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 832 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 17 shares during the quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc.’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in BlackRock in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Lam Group Inc. acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the first quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $934.10 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $883.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $823.65. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $952.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The company has a market cap of $138.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.96 by $0.40. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.36% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $9.28 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total value of $22,529,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,407,041.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 27,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $834.42, for a total value of $22,529,340.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,407,041.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total transaction of $1,289,224.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,732 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,826,802.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,042 shares of company stock valued at $79,387,117 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on BlackRock from $985.00 to $990.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. UBS Group cut their price objective on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $774.00 to $864.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $945.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $908.60.

BlackRock Company 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.