BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Trading 0% Higher

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) shot up 0% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $771.63 and last traded at $769.62. 64,504 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 604,860 shares. The stock had previously closed at $769.33.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BLK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 target price (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 5.32, a quick ratio of 5.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $116.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $775.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $791.10.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.24% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $7.93 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.25 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. This represents a $20.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 51.84%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total value of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 9,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $795.00, for a total transaction of $7,155,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,151,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $807.29, for a total transaction of $25,008,229.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 383,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $309,327,694.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA raised its position in BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. 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.