BlackRock (BLK) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 5th

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of 5.21 per share by the asset manager on Tuesday, December 23rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th.

BlackRock has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. BlackRock has a dividend payout ratio of 41.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect BlackRock to earn $54.05 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $20.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.6%.

BlackRock Stock Up 2.1%

BLK traded up $22.30 on Wednesday, hitting $1,060.92. The company had a trading volume of 138,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 710,456. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $1,104.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1,083.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 3.33 and a quick ratio of 3.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.47. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The asset manager reported $11.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.78 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $6.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.22 billion. BlackRock had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 26.64%.The firm’s revenue was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $11.46 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,301.00 to $1,407.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. BNP Paribas Exane raised their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,160.00 to $1,265.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Bank of America boosted their price target on BlackRock from $1,394.00 to $1,456.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of BlackRock in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on BlackRock from $1,200.00 to $1,350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Seventeen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,302.59.

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.