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

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in a research report report published on Tuesday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on BLK. Argus raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $880.00 to $910.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $920.00 to $930.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $915.00 to $934.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of BlackRock from $842.00 to $837.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $995.31.

BlackRock Price Performance

BLK stock opened at $1,013.87 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $944.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $855.82. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $646.91 and a 52-week high of $1,032.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.02, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $10.91 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 42.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,061 shares of company stock worth $30,734,840. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BLK. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 89,389.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $993,312,000 after buying an additional 1,044,962 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,468.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 792,632 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $7,526,120,000 after buying an additional 791,874 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in BlackRock by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,354,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,630,127,000 after purchasing an additional 435,358 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in BlackRock by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,990,052,000 after purchasing an additional 292,017 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the 1st quarter worth $161,918,000. 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.