BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives $1,120.67 Average Target Price from Analysts

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $1,120.67.

Several research firms have issued reports on BLK. StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BLK. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 39.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 709 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $701,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in BlackRock by 0.4% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,979 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,829,000 after purchasing an additional 11 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in BlackRock by 9.1% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 34,015 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $33,612,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836 shares in the last quarter. BSW Wealth Partners purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $207,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 3rd quarter valued at $96,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BLK stock opened at $912.43 on Wednesday. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The stock has a market cap of $141.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.72, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $990.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $986.42. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $9.66 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 49.62%.

About BlackRock

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.