BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in a research report report published on Saturday. The firm issued a hold rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on BLK. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on BlackRock from $912.00 to $937.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $774.00 to $864.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, UBS Group decreased 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $991.46.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,007.00 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $149.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $596.18 and a 52-week high of $1,016.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $905.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $833.68.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $10.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, September 9th were issued a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 9th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is currently 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total transaction of $24,833,712.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,272,703.50. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total value of $1,289,224.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,826,802.56. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,042 shares of company stock valued at $56,857,777 in the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the second quarter worth $31,000. Lam Group Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock during the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Fairman Group LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BlackRock Company Profile

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.