Shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $750.00 to $890.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. BlackRock traded as high as $772.78 and last traded at $775.42, with a volume of 1344 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $766.68.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on BLK. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $733.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, December 21st. ValuEngine downgraded shares of BlackRock from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $625.00 to $700.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $594.00 to $602.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $690.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. BlackRock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $684.17.

In related news, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 179 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $710.50, for a total value of $127,179.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 3,850 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $626.47, for a total transaction of $2,411,909.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,018 shares of company stock worth $3,209,898 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 182.3% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,699,444 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,012,831,000 after purchasing an additional 2,388,836 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in BlackRock by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,316,168 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,305,276,000 after acquiring an additional 9,153 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in BlackRock by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,953,878 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,101,108,000 after acquiring an additional 47,227 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in BlackRock by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 804,469 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $453,359,000 after acquiring an additional 77,637 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in BlackRock by 27.3% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 690,699 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $375,803,000 after acquiring an additional 148,192 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.10% of the company’s stock.

The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $118.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.85, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $714.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $623.74.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Sunday, October 18th. The asset manager reported $9.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $7.45 by $1.77. BlackRock had a net margin of 29.83% and a return on equity of 14.91%. The business had revenue of $4.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $7.15 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 32.35 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 4th were issued a $3.63 dividend. This represents a $14.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 3rd. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.98%.

About BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)

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.

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