Analysts Set BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) PT at $1,311.06

Shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eighteen research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $1,311.0588.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,270.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised BlackRock from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $1,165.00 to $1,364.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. BNP Paribas Exane increased their price objective on BlackRock from $1,300.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,298.00 to $1,320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th.

Trending Headlines about BlackRock

Here are the key news stories impacting BlackRock this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI infrastructure financing could create a major growth opportunity. BlackRock is among the financial firms working with Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and other partners to mobilize more than $500 billion for data centers, GPUs and related infrastructure. The initiative could generate fees from asset management, private credit and structured-finance products while broadening BlackRock’s role beyond traditional investing. NVIDIA’s $500 Billion GPU Financing Deal Fuels Path Toward $270
• Positive Sentiment: Scale and asset growth remain key strengths. Reports highlight approximately $15.3 trillion in assets under management, a 22% year-over-year AUM increase and improving profit margins. Continued growth in higher-margin ETFs and other products could support earnings and long-term shareholder returns. Larry Fink’s BlackRock Just Crossed $15.3 Trillion in Assets
• Neutral Sentiment: BlackRock-affiliated investors reportedly sold more than $16 million of Bitcoin and Ethereum, while Dartmouth’s holdings in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF and other crypto ETFs declined in value. The developments reflect weaker crypto prices and could signal modest pressure on digital-asset flows, but they do not represent a direct sale of BlackRock’s corporate holdings. BlackRock ends the week dumping millions worth of these 2 cryptocurrencies
• Negative Sentiment: Competition is intensifying in ETFs. Corgi Invest plans to challenge BlackRock with a broad, low-fee lineup, while Goldman Sachs’ planned acquisition of NEOS would strengthen a rival Bitcoin income ETF platform.
• Negative Sentiment: Rosen Law Firm is investigating possible securities claims involving BlackRock mutual funds. The announcement is only an investigation—not a filed finding of wrongdoing—but it adds reputational and legal uncertainty. Rosen investor rights investigation

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,062,677 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $15,051,846,000 after purchasing an additional 221,123 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the 2nd quarter worth $9,747,857,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in BlackRock by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,264,545 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,705,193,000 after purchasing an additional 33,752 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in BlackRock by 5,190.3% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,490,422 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $5,876,618,000 after purchasing an additional 5,386,640 shares during the period. Finally, Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 4.7% during the first quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 5,330,492 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,126,387,000 after purchasing an additional 237,667 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BlackRock Trading Down 0.9%

BLK opened at $1,172.20 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $1,053.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $1,043.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.59 and a quick ratio of 3.59. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $917.39 and a 12 month high of $1,219.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.02, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.42.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 15th. The asset manager reported $13.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $12.69 by $1.22. The firm had revenue of $7.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.73 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 24.09%.BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $12.05 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 55.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 8th will be paid a $5.73 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $22.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.78%.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.