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 by an average of 7.3% annually 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. Equities 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 Price Performance

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,053.50 on Thursday. BlackRock has a one year low of $745.55 and a one year 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. The firm has a market cap of $163.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $1,024.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $958.99.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,040.00 to $1,160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of BlackRock in a research note on Friday, January 24th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $914.00 to $971.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BlackRock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,120.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at BlackRock

In other news, COO Robert L. Goldstein sold 54,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 41,916 shares in the company, valued at $43,845,393.48. This trade represents a 56.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Wiedman sold 36,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,045.90, for a total transaction of $37,851,121.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,777,432. This represents a 84.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 100,190 shares of company stock worth $104,436,741. 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.