BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Evercore ISI Analyst Says

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Evercore ISI from $1,200.00 to $1,230.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the asset manager’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 8.65% from the company’s current price.

BLK has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,210.00 to $1,310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,252.00 to $1,301.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,093.00 to $1,242.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut BlackRock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,258.56.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,132.12 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 4.04 and a quick ratio of 4.04. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,134.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,034.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.45. BlackRock has a one year low of $773.74 and a one year high of $1,184.13.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $12.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $10.41 by $1.64. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 29.68%.The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $10.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 12,054 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.43, for a total value of $13,565,933.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 251,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $283,267,354.71. The trade was a 4.57% 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. Also, Director Rachel Lord sold 18,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,125.60, for a total value of $20,301,321.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 19,205 shares in the company, valued at $21,617,148. This trade represents a 48.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,494 shares of company stock valued at $74,694,573. 1.98% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Securian Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the first quarter valued at $7,331,000. Prudent Man Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at $2,018,000. Allianz SE increased its position in BlackRock by 2.6% during the first quarter. Allianz SE now owns 11,025 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $10,435,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the first quarter valued at $40,868,000. Finally, Community Financial Services Group LLC increased its position in BlackRock by 17.2% during the first quarter. Community Financial Services Group LLC now owns 5,702 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,397,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.