Merit Financial Group LLC Sells 77 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Merit Financial Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,039 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 77 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 671.4% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FSC Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

BlackRock Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $763.91 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00. The company has a market cap of $113.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $797.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $764.35. The company has a current ratio of 3.48, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

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

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total value of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at $13,910,292.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $4,691,032.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,910,292.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 72,057 shares of company stock worth $58,575,704 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.