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

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%.

BlackRock has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.3% per year 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% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 %

NYSE:BLK opened at $1,024.67 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 5.06 and a quick ratio of 5.06. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $978.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $876.59. BlackRock has a 1-year low of $718.72 and a 1-year high of $1,068.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.29, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 31.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $10.91 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 43.17 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,040.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,010.00 to $1,120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of BlackRock from $864.00 to $914.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $960.00 to $1,077.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,019.62.

Insider Activity at BlackRock

In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,832,000. This trade represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.