GAMMA Investing LLC Acquires New Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,157 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $896,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas now owns 2,128 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,728,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 637 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $517,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 9,508 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,719,000 after purchasing an additional 576 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 46.0% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 146 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 130.2% during the fourth quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 8,076 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,556,000 after purchasing an additional 4,568 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BLK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen raised BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,691,032.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 3,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $793.86, for a total value of $2,460,966.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 8,628 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,849,424.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total value of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $4,691,032.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 82,511 shares of company stock worth $66,778,367. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BLK traded up $6.57 on Tuesday, reaching $766.68. 460,845 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 628,075. BlackRock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $596.18 and a fifty-two week high of $845.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $804.19 and its 200-day moving average is $758.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $114.19 billion, a PE ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 3.48 and a quick ratio of 3.48.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $7.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.