Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 40,439 Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 8.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 445,212 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 40,439 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.30% of BlackRock worth $422,734,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 35.8% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,945,000 after buying an additional 1,248 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in BlackRock by 219.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after purchasing an additional 30,274 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at approximately $161,918,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 62.8% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after purchasing an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at approximately $759,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on BLK. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. raised their price objective on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,004.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 11,061 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $852.95, for a total value of $9,434,479.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,527,116. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,061 shares of company stock worth $30,734,840. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of BLK opened at $1,029.82 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $152.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.42, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $646.91 and a 12 month high of $1,057.51. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $947.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $857.04. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its 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. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 42.94 EPS for the current 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.