William Ford, a director at
BlackRock (BLK), recently added 3,000 shares. The buy increased his stake by 25 percent, and came to a total purchase price of just over $2.06 million.
This marks the first insider buy at the asset management company in the past three years. All other insider transactions have been sales. And those sales have all been by C-suite executives on a fairly steady basis.
Overall, insiders at the company own 1.1 percent of shares.
Shares of the asset manager are down 15 percent over the past year. Earnings are up 6 percent, and revenue is up 14 percent. While a bit on the slow side, the company has a fat profit margin of 30 percent, and it does bring in more than $19 billion in annual revenue.
Action to take: Shares are fairly priced at 17 times earnings. As one of the world’s leading asset managers, the stock’s fortunes will likely move in line with that of the overall economy. Thanks to the recent drop in shares and an increase, the stock yields 2.8 percent right now.
For traders, shares have been in a downtrend for months, and may not be over yet. Traders may want to look for a turnaround in shares before going long. The October $800 calls, last going for about $16.00, could trade a bit more cheaply before such a turnaround.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any of the companies mentioned in this article.