BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Increases Dividend to $5.21 Per Share

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 5.21 per share by the asset manager on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. This is an increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10.

BlackRock has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. BlackRock has a dividend payout ratio of 38.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BlackRock to earn $53.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $20.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

BlackRock Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of BLK traded up $2.30 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $1,053.50. 759,493 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 801,840. The firm has a market cap of $163.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,024.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $958.99. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $745.55 and a 52-week high of $1,082.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a current ratio of 5.23.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. BlackRock’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $9.66 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total value of $10,100,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total value of $37,851,121.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,777,432. This trade represents a 84.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 100,190 shares of company stock valued at $104,436,741. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on BLK shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen lifted their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays cut their target price on BlackRock from $1,220.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $1,120.67.

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.