BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) to Issue $5.10 Quarterly Dividend

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of 5.10 per share by the asset manager on Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 5th.

BlackRock has increased its dividend by an average of 11.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. BlackRock has a dividend payout ratio of 41.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BlackRock to earn $48.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $20.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.4%.

BlackRock Stock Performance

NYSE BLK opened at $1,032.30 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $981.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $877.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $159.88 billion, a PE ratio of 25.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. BlackRock has a 1 year low of $724.54 and a 1 year high of $1,068.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $10.91 earnings per share. BlackRock’s revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that BlackRock will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

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.