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

Equities researchers at StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on BLK. Citigroup raised their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,245.00 to $1,261.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,088.67.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,012.62 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $156.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $745.55 and a 1-year high of $1,082.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $1,029.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $943.81.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The business’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $9.66 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 43.18 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. One Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 31.7% in the second quarter. One Capital Management LLC now owns 324 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $255,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at about $383,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in shares of BlackRock by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 16,108 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,682,000 after acquiring an additional 1,019 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 53,332 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $41,989,000 after acquiring an additional 5,730 shares during the period. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. boosted its position in shares of BlackRock by 6.0% in the second quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

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.