Sometimes it's okay to be a gold digger, especially if it means you can own a piece of BlackRock.
The New York-based firm is the world's largest asset manager, with nearly $3.8 trillion under management.
BlackRock (BLK) has been particularly successful thanks to its dominant presence in the ETF market. BlackRock's iShares, the world's biggest ETF provider, led the industry in 2012 by raking in more than $85 billion of the record $263 billion that investors plowed into ETFs. And analysts expect that demand for ETFs to continue to fuel BlackRock's growth.
Though the stock climbed more than 15% last year, JPMorgan analysts say Blackrock "is still one of the best positioned asset managers with a still attractive stock price." They have a target price of $262 on the stock, up more than 10% from its current level.
Plus, BlackRock is sharing the wealth. Earlier this year, the firm's board boosted BlackRock's quarterly dividend to 2.8% and expanded its share buyback program by 7.5 million shares.
