Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Cuts Stake in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 63.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,808 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 11,643 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,463,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter worth $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% in the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 81.5% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BLK has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,036.46 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $724.54 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34. The company has a market capitalization of $160.53 billion, a PE ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $984.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $879.49. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%.

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.