Citigroup Begins Coverage on BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

Citigroup began coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK – Get Rating) in a report published on Thursday, The Fly reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $750.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on BLK. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $760.00 to $740.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 13th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Thursday. They issued a hold rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $800.00 to $779.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $829.00 to $861.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $662.00 to $673.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, April 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $755.92.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK stock opened at $666.70 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $656.60 and its 200-day moving average is $695.82. The company has a quick ratio of 4.20, a current ratio of 4.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company has a market cap of $99.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.27. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $503.12 and a twelve month high of $785.65.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 14th. The asset manager reported $7.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $7.71 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.24 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 13.66% and a net margin of 28.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $9.52 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 34.45 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $696.00, for a total transaction of $2,088,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 71,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,629,672. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $696.00, for a total transaction of $2,088,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 71,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,629,672. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 35,799 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $694.50, for a total transaction of $24,862,405.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 484,325 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $336,363,712.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 39,374 shares of company stock worth $27,346,615 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.96% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 753.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,723,157 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $948,219,000 after purchasing an additional 1,521,293 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,037,009,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in BlackRock by 104,159.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 697,499 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $494,269,000 after purchasing an additional 696,830 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,492,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,424,424,000 after purchasing an additional 444,552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,335,602 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,363,708,000 after acquiring an additional 430,524 shares during the last quarter. 77.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Company Profile

(Get Rating)

BlackRock, Inc engages in providing investment management, risk management, and advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. Its products include single and multi-asset class portfolios investing in equities, fixed income, alternatives, and money market instruments. The company was founded by Susan L.