BlackRock, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $5.21 (NYSE:BLK)

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 15th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 5th will be paid a dividend of 5.21 per share by the asset manager on Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.12%.

BlackRock has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 16 years. BlackRock has a payout ratio of 41.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BlackRock to earn $54.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $20.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.6%.

BlackRock Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of BLK opened at $982.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $914.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $978.04. BlackRock has a twelve month low of $752.30 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.41.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The company had revenue of $5.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.81 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BLK shares. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,275.00 to $1,124.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,065.00 to $1,035.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,077.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $912.50, for a total transaction of $9,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 66,034 shares in the company, valued at $60,256,025. This represents a 13.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold 12,430 shares of company stock valued at $11,237,249 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.98% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BlackRock

An institutional investor recently raised its position in BlackRock stock. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,052 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the quarter. Bison Wealth LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $1,078,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 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.