BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Raises Dividend to $5.73 Per Share

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be given a dividend of 5.73 per share by the asset manager on Tuesday, March 24th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. This is a 10.0% increase from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.21.

BlackRock has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 16 consecutive years. BlackRock has a payout ratio of 41.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Performance

BLK opened at $1,157.55 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $1,070.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $1,103.87. BlackRock has a 52-week low of $773.74 and a 52-week high of $1,219.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a current ratio of 3.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.59 billion, a PE ratio of 29.76, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.47.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $13.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $12.55 by $0.61. BlackRock had a net margin of 26.64% and a return on equity of 14.80%. The firm had revenue of $7.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $11.93 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 23.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About BlackRock

BlackRock, Inc is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of products and services to institutional, intermediary and individual investors. Its core activities include portfolio management across active and index strategies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand, fixed income, equity and multi-asset solutions, as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate and infrastructure. The firm also offers cash management and liquidity solutions and retirement-focused products designed for defined contribution and defined benefit investors.

In addition to traditional investment management, BlackRock is known for its technology and risk management capabilities, most prominently its Aladdin platform, which combines portfolio management, trading and risk analytics and is used both internally and licensed to external clients.