BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Trading 0.2% Higher

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) shot up 0.2% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $838.38 and last traded at $836.50. 77,094 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 592,054 shares. The stock had previously closed at $835.12.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on BLK. UBS Group upped their price target on BlackRock from $720.00 to $818.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $885.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $719.00 to $793.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 30th. TD Cowen raised shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of BlackRock from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $708.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, December 15th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $785.73.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.2 %

The stock has a market cap of $124.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.84, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $805.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $742.68. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 12th. The asset manager reported $9.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $8.84 by $0.82. BlackRock had a net margin of 30.81% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The firm had revenue of $4.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $8.93 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 39.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.00. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 55.88%.

Insider Activity

In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,910,292.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, Director Rachel Lord sold 36,059 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $818.06, for a total transaction of $29,498,425.54. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,910,292.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total value of $353,299.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $4,691,032.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028 in the last quarter. 0.96% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BLK. West Tower Group LLC purchased a new position in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new position in BlackRock in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its holdings in BlackRock by 208.3% during the 4th quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 25 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

About BlackRock

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.