BLK Stock Pops on Deal with Microsoft

Last night BlackRock, Inc (NYSE:BLK) announced Aladdin, its investment management and operations platform, will be hosted on Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure cloud network. In response, Deutsche Bank hiked its price target to $478 from $462, and Jefferies moved to $525 from $514. At last check, BLK is up 6.1% to trade at $478.24.

BLK’s 10-day moving average has acted as support since its mid-March three-year low of $323.98, and now, the equity is on pace to topple its 40-day moving average on a closing basis. This will be the first such occurrence since the stock's peak in mid-February, just above the $540 level.

Analysts are quite bullish on BLK stock at the moment. Of the nine analysts in coverage, seven rate it as a “buy” or better while the remaining sport a “hold” position. Echoing this is the stock’s consensus 12-month price target of $491.57 which sits at a 3.9% premium to the stock’s current levels.

BLK sports a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 1.29 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which sits higher than 72% of readings during the past 12 months. In simpler terms, this  suggests the appetite for long calls is higher-than-usual.

Lastly, BLK's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a high 97 (out of 100). This indicates that the stock has exceeded option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.