BlackRock’s assets under management surged 15% year-on-year to a record $10.5 trillion in the first quarter, as more people trusted the company to put their cash to work and markets performed well.
The Wall Street titan grew its AUM by $1.4 trillion in 12 months, its first-quarter earnings revealed on Friday. The increase reflected a big net inflow of client funds and a positive market backdrop.
BlackRock’s revenue increased 11% to $4.7 billion, which helped boost its operating income by 18% to $1.7 billion. Its management also bought back $375 million worth of stock and hiked the quarterly dividend by 2% to $5.10 a share.
Investors celebrated the strong showing by pushing BlackRock shares up as much as 3% in premarket trading to around $807. The stock was virtually flat for the year at Thursday’s close.
“BlackRock’s momentum continues to build,” CEO Larry Fink said in the earnings release.
“Organic asset and base fee growth accelerated into the end of the quarter, and first quarter long-term net inflows of $76 billion already represent nearly 40% of full year 2023 levels.”
Indeed, BlackRock’s net inflows were $76 billion in the first quarter versus $183 billion in all of 2023. The large inflow isn’t too surprising as market sentiment has been largely solid this year, which has helped to push stocks and other assets to record highs.
