Company Update (NYSE:BLK): MOVES-BlackRock hires former co-head of UK Treasury funds team

[Reuters] – BlackRock has hired the former co-head of asset management at the UK Treasury, Jonathan Gee, to join its government relations team, a company spokesman said. Gee led Britain’s implementation of hedge funds … Read more on this. BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) , with a current market cap of $49.28B, started trading this morning at $295.84. Today’s price range has been between $295.48 and $298.14 per share and has traded between $275.00 and $382.84 over the past year. BLK shares are currently priced at 14.87x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them relatively expensive compared to the industry ’s 14.09x forward p/e ratio. The company pays shareholders $9.16 per share annually in dividends, yielding 3.12%. In a review of the consensus earnings estimate this quarter, 18 sell-side analysts are looking at $4.41 per share, which would be $0.48 worse than the year-ago quarter and a $0.32 sequential decrease. The full-year EPS estimate is $19.49 which would be a $0.11 setback than last year’s full-year earnings. The quarterly earnings estimate is predicated on a consensus revenue forecast of $2.77 Billion. If reported, that would be a 1.84% increase over the year-ago quarter. More recently, Gabelli & Co upgraded BLK from Hold to Buy (Sep 16, 2015). Previously, Credit Suisse upgraded BLK from Neutral to Outperform. When considering if perhaps the stock is under or overvalued, the average price target is $348.94, which is 17.95% above where the stock opened this morning. See more in (NYSE:BLK) Similar Articles: Stock Update: BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) – BlackRock Launches Impact Equity Funds Company Update: BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) – BlackRock to Acquire FutureAdvisor Company Update: BlackRock Inc (NYSE:BLK) – BlackRock says Italy regulator dismisses charges over 2013 share sale