BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Price Target Raised to $1,300.00

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its price target hoisted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $1,275.00 to $1,300.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $1,145.00 price objective on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, July 10th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,235.00 to $1,270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,238.00 to $1,105.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,430.00 to $1,383.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,304.29.

BlackRock Stock Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $1,072.30 on Thursday. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $917.39 and a 12-month high of $1,219.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 4.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,033.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1,043.13.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.01% and a net margin of 24.09%.The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $12.05 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 55.24 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th were issued a $5.73 dividend. This represents a $22.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 5th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.53%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 33,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,050.55, for a total value of $35,613,645.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 230,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $242,168,583.80. This represents a 12.82% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Robert Kapito sold 8,739 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,056.60, for a total transaction of $9,233,627.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 210,186 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $222,082,527.60. This represents a 3.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 1.92% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BLK. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,575 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,615,000 after purchasing an additional 296 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after buying an additional 17 shares during the period. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. acquired a new position in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $259,000. Nebula Research & Development LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $548,000. Finally, Osterweis Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $98,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Key BlackRock News

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock reported record second-quarter results, with revenue and earnings beating Wall Street estimates and client assets reaching a new high, highlighting strong operating momentum. Blackrock CEO Says Client Demand Has ‘Never Been Greater’ as Assets Reach Record $15.3 Trillion
• Positive Sentiment: BMO Capital Markets raised its price target on BlackRock to $1,300 and kept an outperform view, while other firms also lifted targets after the earnings beat, signaling rising Street confidence. BlackRock price target raised by BMO Capital Markets
• Positive Sentiment: J.P. Morgan upgraded BlackRock to overweight/buy-equivalent and Bank of America reiterated a buy rating, citing growth opportunities in tokenization, private markets, direct indexing, and automation-led margin expansion. JP Morgan upgrades BlackRock to buy-equivalent after Q2 earnings
• Positive Sentiment: BlackRock’s iShares business surpassed $6 trillion in assets, and Bitcoin ETF inflows continued to support the firm’s fast-growing ETF platform, reinforcing a strong fee-based growth story. BlackRock iShares Surpasses $6 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles highlighted BlackRock’s expanding ownership stakes in other companies and broader market commentary, but these items are not likely to materially move BLK shares on their own.

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.