BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on BLK. UBS Group cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Barclays raised their price objective on BlackRock from $950.00 to $990.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,065.00 to $1,035.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on BlackRock from $1,251.00 to $1,032.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $964.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $149.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $752.30 and a 52-week high of $1,084.22. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $920.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $977.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $9.81 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be paid a $5.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.16%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.63%.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $852.01, for a total value of $1,704,020.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 66,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,261,628.34. This represents a 2.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,430 shares of company stock worth $11,237,249. 1.98% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BLK. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,598.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,500,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,312,759,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,740 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $2,356,357,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of BlackRock by 401.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,095,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,122,743,000 after purchasing an additional 876,836 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in BlackRock by 138,682.5% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $634,000 after acquiring an additional 633,779 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at $572,730,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.