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

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $1,013.00 to $1,025.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

BLK has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group upped their target price on BlackRock from $818.00 to $850.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective 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 upgraded BlackRock from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their price objective for the company from $819.00 to $938.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $845.42.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $753.75 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $112.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 3.48, a current ratio of 3.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $806.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $755.19. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $596.18 and a twelve month high of $845.00.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The asset manager reported $9.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.42 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $4.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.65 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.34% and a net margin of 32.26%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $7.93 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 41.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Laurence Fink sold 30,978 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other BlackRock news, 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 414,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $335,425,128.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Christopher J. Meade sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.54, for a total value of $5,085,660.60. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,366,142.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 100,511 shares of company stock worth $71,864,028 in the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BlackRock

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BLK. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new position in shares of BlackRock in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Private Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BlackRock in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA grew its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 208.3% in the fourth quarter. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA now owns 37 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Finally, Northwest Financial Advisors purchased a new position in BlackRock during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

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.