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BlackRock drew in $192bn of capital in the second quarter, as a stock trading boom helped push the assets under management at the world’s largest money manager to a record $15.3tn.
The influx of capital beat Wall Street forecasts and was driven largely by clients in the Americas and its iShares exchange traded funds business.
BlackRock, like others across the asset management industry, benefited from booming capital markets, with a rally in global equity markets helping to lift the value of investments managed by the sector.
Revenues generated by the New York-headquartered group jumped 31 per cent from a year earlier to $7.1bn, while net income rose 20 per cent to $1.9bn.
The company said its adjusted operating profit margin, a key metric watched by investors and analysts across Wall Street, rose to 45.9 per cent — its highest level in nearly five years.
“Market fundamentals are strong and well supported, with higher margins and earnings momentum catalysed by new technology,” chief executive Larry Fink said in a statement.
Fink said organic base-fee growth, the company’s preferred metric which measures the increase of the management fees BlackRock earns, was 8 per cent in the quarter, above a long-term 5 per cent target.
BlackRock has expanded into higher-margin products, including active exchange traded funds and private markets, as it seeks to move beyond the passive index funds that built it into the dominant asset manager globally.
The company drew in $22bn across its alternatives business in the quarter, including $15.4bn to the unit that includes its private credit, infrastructure and real estate franchises.
BlackRock shares rose more than 5 per cent in pre-market trading.
