BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $1,063.00.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,245.00 to $1,261.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total value of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLK. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,681,472,000 after purchasing an additional 42,757 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,663,330,000 after buying an additional 30,182 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 10.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,244,608,000 after buying an additional 226,135 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,081,561,000 after buying an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in BlackRock by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,762,000 after acquiring an additional 46,728 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,054.83 on Friday. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,082.45. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $163.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a 50 day moving average of $1,024.06 and a 200 day moving average of $917.84.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 43.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th were given a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 50.35%.

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.