Barclays Lowers BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Price Target to $950.00

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its target price trimmed by Barclays from $1,210.00 to $950.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BLK has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Sunday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on BlackRock from $1,155.00 to $1,175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,196.00 to $1,178.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,103.08.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.7 %

BLK stock opened at $817.17 on Monday. BlackRock has a 52 week low of $745.55 and a 52 week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market cap of $126.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 5.23, a current ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $964.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $991.92.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $9.66 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $5.21 dividend. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 430 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $949.37, for a total transaction of $408,229.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,720 shares in the company, valued at $3,531,656.40. The trade was a 10.36 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock worth $21,234,629 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in BlackRock by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,376,606 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,712,493,000 after acquiring an additional 68,405 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,097,524 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $4,200,450,000 after purchasing an additional 93,844 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in BlackRock by 104,598.9% during the 1st 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,006,765 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,072,787,000 after buying an additional 190,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,390,450 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,450,475,000 after buying an additional 26,485 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BlackRock

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.