In the latest trading session, BlackRock (BLK) closed at $978.07, marking a -0.19% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.41% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.08%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.67%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the investment firm had gained 5.46% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's gain of 4.15% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 6.13% in that time.

The upcoming earnings release of BlackRock will be of great interest to investors. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $10.37, showcasing a 0.1% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $5.37 billion, indicating a 11.83% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

BLK's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $44.75 per share and revenue of $22.53 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +2.61% and +10.4%, respectively.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for BlackRock. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.88% lower. Right now, BlackRock possesses a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that BlackRock has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.9 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.74, which means BlackRock is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that BLK currently has a PEG ratio of 2.98. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Financial - Investment Management industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.3.

The Financial - Investment Management industry is part of the Finance sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 218, positioning it in the bottom 12% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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