Morgan Stanley Increases BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Price Target to $1,025.00

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its price objective upped by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 36.85% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on BLK. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen raised BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $930.00 price objective (up from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $811.43.

BlackRock Stock Down 1.8 %

BLK opened at $749.02 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $111.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.37. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $807.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $755.20. The company has a current ratio of 3.48, a quick ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $596.18 and a 12 month high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $7.93 EPS. BlackRock’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that BlackRock will post 41.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other BlackRock news, insider Marc D. Comerchero sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 5,975 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,691,032.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,366,142.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 100,511 shares of company stock valued at $71,864,028. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Emerald Advisors LLC raised its holdings in BlackRock by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Emerald Advisors LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $851,000 after acquiring an additional 26 shares during the period. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 1.9% during the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 1,101 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $712,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of BlackRock by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 764 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at about $205,000. Finally, Sara Bay Financial purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at about $387,000. 80.69% of the stock is 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.