BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $1,077.08.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective 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. Bank of America reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of BlackRock in a report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,403,973.12. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders sold 12,430 shares of company stock valued at $12,838,649. Insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position 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 valued at $3,312,759,000 after buying an additional 3,496,740 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,356,357,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 401.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,095,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,122,743,000 after purchasing an additional 876,836 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 138,682.5% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after purchasing an additional 633,779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $572,730,000. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.8 %

BLK stock opened at $894.59 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $138.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23. The business’s 50-day moving average is $924.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $983.94. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $748.02 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22.

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. The firm had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.81 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. This is a boost from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.63%.

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.