BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Wednesday. BlackRock, along with its subsidiaries, provides investment management services to institutional clients and to individual investors through various investment vehicles.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back BlackRock, with 11 of 13 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like BlackRock better than competitor Morgan Stanley overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $2.33 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $2.83 per share. Estimates range from $2.58 to $3.12.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 87% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 90.3% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on BlackRock and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 140 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, BlackRock's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
BlackRock's profit has risen year over year by an average of 77% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Net Margin

26.2%

24.4%

25.9%

25.1%

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