Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Reduces Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich decreased its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 94,543 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 3,571 shares during the quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich owned approximately 0.06% of BlackRock worth $76,750,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 3.2% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,369,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,178,048,000 after purchasing an additional 104,844 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,329,550 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,148,586,000 after purchasing an additional 35,161 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 22.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,105,314 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,361,064,000 after purchasing an additional 379,631 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in BlackRock by 21.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,745,648 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,128,544,000 after purchasing an additional 307,516 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 5.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,568,890 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,014,287,000 after purchasing an additional 74,974 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

BlackRock stock traded down $4.96 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $757.84. 510,117 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 628,151. The company has a market capitalization of $112.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.37. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $803.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $759.33. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $596.18 and a 1 year high of $845.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48.

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 business had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $7.93 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,418 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $781.11, for a total value of $2,669,833.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 70,378 shares in the company, valued at $54,972,959.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 82,511 shares of company stock valued at $66,778,367. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.