BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $995.31.

BLK has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on BlackRock from $912.00 to $937.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on BlackRock from $995.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on BlackRock in a research report on Monday. They issued a "hold" rating for the company.

BlackRock Stock Performance

BlackRock stock traded up $0.73 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $980.60. 607,791 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 570,643. The firm has a market cap of $145.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $937.94 and a 200 day moving average of $849.30. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $604.41 and a 12 month high of $1,032.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $10.42 by $1.04. The firm had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 32.36%. The company's revenue was up 14.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $10.91 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other BlackRock news, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total transaction of $1,289,224.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,732 shares in the company, valued at $4,826,802.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Pamela Daley sold 1,531 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $842.08, for a total transaction of $1,289,224.48. Following the sale, the director now owns 5,732 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,826,802.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Laurence Fink sold 29,450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $843.25, for a total value of $24,833,712.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,718 shares in the company, valued at $298,272,703.50. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,042 shares of company stock worth $56,857,777 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BlackRock

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 2.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,182,262 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $10,990,052,000 after purchasing an additional 292,017 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 11.1% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,354,236 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,630,127,000 after acquiring an additional 435,358 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 2.9% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,665,044 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $1,310,762,000 after acquiring an additional 46,728 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 1.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,197,274 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $942,640,000 after acquiring an additional 22,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in BlackRock by 89,389.4% in the third quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,046,131 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $993,312,000 after acquiring an additional 1,044,962 shares during the last quarter. 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.