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

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

BLK has been the subject of a number of other reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price 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. TD Cowen upped their target price 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. Evercore ISI upped their price target on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on BlackRock from $1,105.00 to $1,133.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,019.62.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BLK opened at $1,024.67 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $158.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.30. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $718.72 and a 1-year high of $1,068.34. The company’s fifty day moving average is $978.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $876.59. 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 data on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The business’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $10.91 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value 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. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,983,583 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,681,472,000 after acquiring an additional 42,757 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,816,577 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,663,330,000 after buying an additional 30,182 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,363,965 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,244,608,000 after purchasing an additional 226,135 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in BlackRock by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,192,247 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,081,561,000 after purchasing an additional 40,865 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in BlackRock by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,310,762,000 after purchasing an additional 46,728 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.