BlackRock is the IBD Stock Of The Day as it bets big on a hot market and flourishes the most successful bitcoin ETF. BlackRock stock offered an early entry on Thursday.
As the bitcoin price crossed $100,000, BlackRock savored a milestone of its own on Thursday. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF surpassed $50 billion in assets, more than double the size of its nearest ETF competitor.
The iShares Bitcoin ETF reached that milestone in record time. The exchange traded fund crossed $50 billion in assets in only 227 days, five times faster than the previous record holder, which did it in 1,323 days, a Bloomberg ETF analyst tweeted.
On Monday, BlackRock said it has agreed to buy private-credit manager HPS Investment Partners in a $12 billion all-stock deal. The world's largest asset manager continued its push into private-credit markets, which the Wall Street Journal called one of Wall Street's hottest markets right now. Its third big acquisition of the year builds on efforts to keep more client business in-house and generate higher fees.
BlackRock Stock Bounces, Financial Stocks Acting Well
Shares of BlackRock broke a slight downtrend in a four-weeks-tight pattern on the stock market today. BlackRock stock bounced from its 21-day exponential moving average, extending its bounce from near the 10-week line and offering an early entry.
The financial stock continues to work on a 1,068.34 traditional buy point, according to MarketSurge pattern recognition Shares traded about 2% below the entry on Thursday.
The relative strength line for BLK stock is not far from mid-November highs. If the RS line moves to new highs as the investment giant tries to break out, it would send a positive signal. A rising RS line means that a stock is outperforming the S&P 500 index. It is the blue line in the chart provided.
Financial and bank stocks broadly led the stock market's November rally. Investors bet that incoming President Donald Trump's administration will loosen regulations, which should especially help this heavily regulated sector.
A number of financial stocks can be found on top IBD lists for stocks to buy and research.
Blue Owl Capital and Tradeweb Markets are on the IBD Leaderboard. App-based insurance upstarts Lemonade and Root are on the IBD 50 list of top growth stocks. So are Toast and Robinhood Markets. Gallagher and Kinsale Capital are on the Long-Term Leaders list.
BlackRock Earnings Acceleration
The IBD Stock Checkup tool shows that BlackRock stock earns a solid Composite Rating of 89 out of 99. The rating rolls various fundamental and technical metrics into one easy-to-use score.
Additionally, BlackRock shows an RS Rating of 82 and EPS Rating of 76, also out of a best-possible 99.
In the third quarter, BlackRock earnings trudged up 5% as revenue rose 15%. But for the full year, analysts project that BlackRock earnings per share will speed up to a 14.5% gain from 6.8% in 2023. They anticipate a further 12.5% EPS increase next year.
Analysts see sales rebounding 14% in full-year 2024 from a 0.1% decline last year, according to FactSet. Sales growth is seen accelerating to 16.4% next year.
On Wednesday, Wells Fargo raised its price target on BlackRock stock to $1,200 from $1,090, a 10% increase. The equity research firm kept an overweight rating on shares following BlackRock's HPS deal. Citing BlackRock's move into private assets, the firm said it sees earnings from such alternatives at 23% in 2026 vs. 13% in 2023, according to an analyst note seen by TheFly.com.
The firm expects earnings accretion from the HPS deal to be minimal in 2026. But the long-term opportunity is big and the shift to alternatives is multiple enhancing, Wells Fargo argued.
Since the Nov. 5 election, nine analysts out of 20 covering BlackRock stock have raised their price targets, FactSet shows. No one has cut.
The average price target of 1,107.06 suggests modest further upside for BLK stock, which sits on a 29% gain in 2024 so far.
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