BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) Declares $5.10 Quarterly Dividend

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of 5.10 per share by the asset manager on Monday, December 23rd. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%.

BlackRock has raised its dividend by an average of 11.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 15 consecutive years. BlackRock has a payout ratio of 41.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BlackRock to earn $48.11 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 42.4%.

BlackRock Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE BLK opened at $1,024.67 on Thursday. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $718.72 and a 52-week high of $1,068.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $978.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $876.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 5.06 and a current ratio of 5.06.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $10.91 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on BLK. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,245.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on BlackRock from $1,000.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,019.62.

Insider Transactions at BlackRock

In other news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total transaction of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. The trade was a 64.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.