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BlackRock powered to a new all-time high of $10.6tn in assets under management thanks to vibrant markets, but it narrowly missed expectations for revenue amid tepid inflows.
The world’s largest asset manager reported revenue of $4.81bn for the quarter ending June 30, up 8 per cent year on year on the back of the higher AUM, slightly below the $4.84bn expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg. Net income was up 9 per cent year on year at $1.5bn. The adjusted figure of $1.56bn topped expectations of $1.47bn.
Assets under management rose 1.7 per cent quarter on quarter.
Net inflows of $82bn in the quarter missed expectations of $112bn, as long-term flows fell short.
Chief executive Larry Fink said: “BlackRock is executing on the broadest opportunity set we’ve seen in years . . . Organic growth was driven by private markets, retail active fixed income, and surging flows into ETFs [exchange traded funds], which had their best start to a year on record.”
BlackRock two weeks ago announced the purchase of Preqin, a private markets data provider, as it continues to push into alternative assets and technology. Its ETF inflows have been boosted by strong interest in its bitcoin product.
BlackRock has long traded on a much higher multiple of earnings than its traditional asset management peers, but in the past six months its shares have lagged behind the broader financial sector, rising just 3.5 per cent since the start of the year, compared to 12 per cent for financial companies in the S&P 500.
