Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Stock

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by analysts at Barclays from $950.00 to $990.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an "overweight" rating on the asset manager's stock. Barclays's price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.03% from the company's previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on BLK. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Monday. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $1,077.08.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BLK traded up $10.08 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $875.86. The company had a trading volume of 1,034,313 shares, compared to its average volume of 685,191. BlackRock has a 12-month low of $745.55 and a 12-month high of $1,084.22. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $932.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $985.86. The stock has a market cap of $135.98 billion, a PE ratio of 20.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $9.81 earnings per share. BlackRock's revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total transaction of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $73,403,973.12. This trade represents a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in BlackRock in the third quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Invst LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 2,435 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $2,312,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the third quarter valued at about $225,000. Tudor Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of BlackRock during the third quarter worth about $399,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 31.8% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 791 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company's stock.

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.