BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Announces $5.10 Quarterly Dividend

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 24th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th will be given a dividend of 5.10 per share by the asset manager on Monday, September 23rd. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.46%.

BlackRock has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 15 years. BlackRock has a dividend payout ratio of 43.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect BlackRock to earn $45.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $20.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 44.6%.

BlackRock Stock Down 1.9 %

BlackRock stock traded down $16.26 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $828.43. The stock had a trading volume of 338,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,191. The company has a market cap of $123.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.47, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 5.32 and a quick ratio of 5.32. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $794.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $794.72. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $596.18 and a 52 week high of $851.88.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $10.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.96 by $0.40. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 32.36%. The business had revenue of $4.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $9.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.23 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total value of $7,155,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 383,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,978 shares of company stock valued at $54,692,570. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Argus upped their target price on BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on BlackRock from $910.00 to $920.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on BlackRock from $974.00 to $969.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $872.29.

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.