Commerce Bank Sells 431 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Commerce Bank lowered its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK - Free Report) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 33,412 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 431 shares during the period. Commerce Bank's holdings in BlackRock were worth $34,251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $13,712,493,000 after acquiring an additional 68,405 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,072,787,000 after purchasing an additional 190,188 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $2,356,357,000. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in BlackRock by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,498,357 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,536,018,000 after acquiring an additional 176,790 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on BLK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $950.00 to $990.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $1,077.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total value of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at $3,531,656.40. This represents a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $875.86 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. BlackRock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The company has a market cap of $135.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.85, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $930.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $985.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $10.84 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm's revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $9.81 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. This is a positive change from BlackRock's previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock's dividend payout ratio is 50.63%.

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.

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