BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives $1,077.08 Average PT from Analysts

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $1,077.08.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,065.00 to $1,035.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now directly owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,531,656.40. The trade was a 10.36 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 22,430 shares of company stock worth $21,963,649 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,712,493,000 after buying an additional 68,405 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in BlackRock by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,097,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $4,200,450,000 after buying an additional 93,844 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,598.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,500,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,312,759,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,740 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,450,475,000 after purchasing an additional 26,485 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK opened at $914.87 on Thursday. BlackRock has a one year low of $748.78 and a one year high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $920.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $983.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $142.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $9.81 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. 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 (DPR) is presently 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.