BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 7th

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 5.21 per share by the asset manager on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $20.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. 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% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. BlackRock has a dividend payout ratio of 38.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Stock Up 1.7 %

BLK stock opened at $1,070.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 5.23 and a quick ratio of 5.23. The firm has a market cap of $165.85 billion, a PE ratio of 25.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.28. BlackRock has a 12 month low of $745.55 and a 12 month high of $1,082.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $1,024.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $959.65.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its 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 business had revenue of $5.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 16.32% and a net margin of 31.21%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $9.66 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that BlackRock will post 47.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,017.00 to $1,045.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,261.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,120.67.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,010.00, for a total transaction of $10,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $69,117,330. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,046.03, for a total transaction of $56,485,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 41,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 100,190 shares of company stock worth $104,436,741. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.