Preview: What to Expect From BlackRock’s Q4 Earnings

The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock is expected to report its fourth-quarter earnings of $10.14 per share, which represents a year-on-year decline of about 0.4% from $10.18 per share seen in the same period a year ago.

The New York-based multinational investment management corporation would post revenue growth of nearly 15% to around $5.15 billion. The company has been able to beat earnings per share (EPS) estimates most of the time in the last two years.

BlackRock to report fourth-quarter 2021 earnings on Friday, January 14 2022.

According to ZACKS Research, the company expects fourth-quarter 2021 core G&A expenses to increase sequentially, reflecting seasonal increases in marketing spend, additional costs related to return to office planning, and ongoing technology costs associated with the latent cloud migrations. In the long term, the company expects its annual contract value to grow in the low to mid-teens. The projected tax rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 is 24%.

The better-than-expected number would help the stock recoup recent losses.  BlackRock’s shares rose over 26% so far this year. It closed 0.42% higher at $913.53 on Thursday.

Analyst Comments

“We believe BlackRock (BLK) is best positioned on the asset mgmt barbell given leading iShares ETF platform, multi-asset & alts combined with technology/Aladdin offerings that should drive ~11% EPS CAGR (2020-23e) via ~6% avg LT organic growth,” noted Michael Cyprys, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“We see further growth ahead for Alts, iShares, international penetration, and the institutional market in the US. Recently acquired Aperio also bolsters solutions offering and organic growth. We expect the premium to widen as BLK takes share in evolving industry and executes on improving organic revenue growth trajectory.”

BlackRock Stock Price Forecast

Nine analysts who offered stock ratings for Blackrock in the last three months forecast the average price in 12 months of $998.33 with a high forecast of $1,141.00 and a low forecast of $794.00.

The average price target represents a 9.26% change from the last price of $913.76. Of those nine analysts, eight rated “Buy”, one rated “Hold” while none rated “Sell”, according to Tipranks.

Morgan Stanley gave the base target price of $1,026 with a high of $1,417 under a bull scenario and $465 under the worst-case scenario. The firm gave an “Overweight” rating on the investment manager’s stock.

Several other analysts have also updated their stock outlook. Deutsche Bank raised the target price to $1141 from $1024. Evercore ISI lifted the price objective to $1015 from $950. UBS raised the target price to $1000 from $978.

Technical analysis also suggests it is good to buy as 100-Day Moving Average and 100-200-day MACD Oscillator signals a buying opportunity.

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