BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $845.42.

BLK has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of BLK opened at $747.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $111.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.37. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $596.18 and a 12-month high of $845.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $805.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $755.13. The company has a current ratio of 3.48, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $7.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 41.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares in the company, valued at $3,366,142.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total value of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,366,142.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 100,511 shares of company stock valued at $71,864,028 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $1,812,920,000. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 57.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,514,999 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,853,517,000 after purchasing an additional 1,279,952 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,918,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,181,346,000 after purchasing an additional 749,654 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,159.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 697,499 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $494,269,000 after purchasing an additional 696,830 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 77,524.5% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 641,955 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,211,390,000 after purchasing an additional 641,128 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.