BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BLK has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.8 %

BlackRock stock opened at $1,036.46 on Thursday. The company 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. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $724.54 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $10.91 earnings per share. BlackRock’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $5.10 per share. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% during the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 81.5% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the last quarter. 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.