BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

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

BLK has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective 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. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,036.46 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $984.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $880.90. 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 stock has a market cap of $160.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $724.54 and a 52-week high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $10.91 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that BlackRock will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

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

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.