BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Issues Earnings Results

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.24 by $0.57, RTT News reports. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 30.81%. The firm had revenue of $4.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $7.93 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $785.96 on Friday. 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 has a one year low of $596.18 and a one year high of $845.00. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $809.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $751.41. The stock has a market cap of $117.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.37.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at $335,425,128.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total transaction of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,366,142.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $25,089,701.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $335,425,128.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028. 0.96% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. SageView Advisory Group LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $1,560,000. Childress Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the 4th quarter valued at $218,000. DRW Securities LLC boosted its stake in BlackRock by 57.0% during the 4th quarter. DRW Securities LLC now owns 1,531 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,243,000 after purchasing an additional 556 shares in the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its stake in BlackRock by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 502 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $408,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in BlackRock by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 10,697 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $8,684,000 after purchasing an additional 1,312 shares in the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on BlackRock from $742.00 to $767.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen raised BlackRock from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. UBS Group upped their target price on BlackRock from $720.00 to $818.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $930.00 target price (up previously from $918.00) on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BlackRock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $796.00.

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.