Morgan Stanley Cuts BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Price Target to $1,383.00

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its price objective decreased by Morgan Stanley from $1,430.00 to $1,383.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,310.00 to $1,340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded BlackRock from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,235.00 to $1,270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,301.35.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.6%

BLK stock opened at $1,087.18 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1,033.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,042.92. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $917.39 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The company has a market cap of $168.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 4.09.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a net margin of 24.09% and a return on equity of 15.01%. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $12.05 EPS. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 54.09 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $5.73 per share. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 57.53%.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total transaction of $35,613,645.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 230,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $242,168,583.80. This represents a 12.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total transaction of $9,233,627.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 210,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,082,527.60. The trade was a 3.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 1.92% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Birchbrook Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Basepoint Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock reported record Q2 results, including $15.3 trillion in AUM, strong revenue growth, and earnings above expectations, underscoring broad-based momentum in its core asset-management business.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts turned more bullish after earnings, with JPMorgan upgrading BLK to overweight and Bank of America, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, and others raising price targets, which can help support the stock.
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s long-term growth levers — including tokenization, private markets, direct indexing, and automation-driven margin expansion — were highlighted by analysts as potential drivers of future earnings growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock’s growing role in crypto and tokenized assets remains a developing narrative, with articles noting strong ETF inflows and Larry Fink’s bullish comments on Bitcoin and digital markets.
• Neutral Sentiment: The company also disclosed a higher stake in Caledonia Mining, but this appears to be a routine ownership filing rather than a direct catalyst for BLK shares.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage noted that BlackRock’s crypto fund holdings declined sharply in value over the past year because of lower crypto prices, which could temper enthusiasm around that business line.

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.