Brokerages Set BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) PT at $1,120.67

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $1,130.85.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Sunday. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock opened at $822.38 on Friday. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $745.55 and a 1 year high of $1,084.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The stock has a market cap of $127.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $968.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $992.26.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. BlackRock’s revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $9.66 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $5.21 per share. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,117,330. This represents a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last three months, insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter valued at about $518,000. Amalgamated Bank increased its position in BlackRock by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 28,711 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $29,432,000 after buying an additional 489 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in BlackRock by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 12,480 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,793,000 after buying an additional 578 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth approximately $32,904,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in BlackRock by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 65,396 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $67,038,000 after acquiring an additional 4,210 shares during the period. 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.