BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Lowered to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

BLK has been the subject of several other reports. Bank of America lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,298.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,260.00 target price on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Monday, August 10th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,389.00 price target on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,383.00 to $1,488.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,311.06.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $1,174.17 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $181.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $1,075.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,045.98. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $917.39 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The company has a current ratio of 3.59, a quick ratio of 3.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.The company’s revenue was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $12.05 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 55.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be issued a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.78%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 23.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,615,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,078,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 2nd quarter valued at $98,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has processed more than $5 billion in tax-deferred conversions from directly held Bitcoin. Reducing the minimum conversion size from $25 million to $1 million could make the product accessible to more wealthy investors and institutions, potentially supporting assets under management and fee revenue. However, these transactions transfer existing Bitcoin into the ETF rather than representing equivalent new cash inflows. Bitcoin to $100K? BlackRock’s $5B ETF Shift Pulls More BTC Into Wall Street
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street analysts remain broadly optimistic about BlackRock’s growth prospects and target price, despite the shares’ strong multiyear advance. What Are Wall Street Analysts’ Target Price for BlackRock Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock named Jessica Tan to lead its global product unit, a management change that could influence future product development and distribution but whose financial impact is not yet clear. BlackRock names Jessica Tan to head global product unit
• Neutral Sentiment: The company announced final August cash distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF. The announcement is routine and primarily affects fund investors rather than BlackRock’s corporate earnings. BlackRock Canada Announces Final August Cash Distributions
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm said it is investigating potential securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds, alleging that the company may have issued materially misleading business information. The announcement does not establish wrongdoing, but it introduces potential legal, reputational and financial risk. BlackRock Investor News: Rosen Law Firm Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: One valuation review says BlackRock now trades near fair value on intrinsic estimates and looks expensive on earnings multiples after an approximately 82% three-year return, limiting near-term upside unless earnings and fee growth accelerate. BlackRock Stock Looks Fully Valued After an 82% Run

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.