StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

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

BLK has been the subject of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price target 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,022.80 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $994.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $887.71. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $742.22 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34.

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

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.35%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 1st quarter worth $70,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in BlackRock by 219.5% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $36,737,000 after purchasing an additional 30,274 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 89.4% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 12,374 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,316,000 after purchasing an additional 5,840 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 22,824 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $19,029,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the 1st quarter worth $224,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.