BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Equities research analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in a report released on Friday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the asset manager’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Up 0.3 %

BlackRock stock opened at $1,022.80 on Friday. BlackRock has a one year low of $742.22 and a one year high of $1,068.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $994.93 and a 200 day moving average of $888.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06. The stock has a market cap of $158.41 billion, a PE ratio of 25.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $10.91 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BlackRock will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the first quarter valued at about $70,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 219.5% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 44,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $36,737,000 after purchasing an additional 30,274 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 89.4% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 12,374 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,316,000 after buying an additional 5,840 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 0.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 22,824 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $19,029,000 after buying an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the first quarter worth $224,000. 80.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.