BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Stock Price Up 0.2%

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)’s stock price rose 0.2% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $758.63 and last traded at $752.79. Approximately 102,563 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average daily volume of 615,362 shares. The stock had previously closed at $751.58.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen raised BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 price objective (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $845.42.

BlackRock Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $799.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $763.50. The company has a market cap of $113.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.13, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a current ratio of 3.48.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a net margin of 32.26% and a return on equity of 15.34%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $7.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BlackRock, Inc. will post 41.19 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total value of $353,299.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at $4,691,032.25. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $809.92, for a total transaction of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $785.11, for a total transaction of $353,299.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 79,093 shares of company stock valued at $64,108,533 in the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in BlackRock by 671.4% during the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 54 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in BlackRock by 1.6% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 42,689 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $27,598,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in BlackRock by 0.6% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 21,011 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $13,583,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter worth about $318,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in BlackRock by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 276,276 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $178,610,000 after buying an additional 4,324 shares during the period. 80.69% of the stock is currently 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.