BlackRock Reaches Record $ 10,000 Billion in Assets Under Management | Financial market news

An increase in fourth-quarter flows to BlackRock’s exchange-traded funds helped the company become the first asset manager to cross the $ 10,000 billion mark.

BlackRock Inc. became the first public asset manager to reach $ 10 trillion in assets, propelled by increased fourth-quarter flows to its exchange-traded funds.

Investors invested $ 104 billion net in ETFs during the quarter ended Dec.31, the company said in a statement on Friday – a record for the company.

The world’s largest asset manager also benefited from a market rally, with the S&P 500 rising 11% in the last quarter and 27% in 2021. Investors added $ 169 billion net to vehicles from BlackRock’s long-term investment, including ETFs and mutual funds, in the last three months of the year.

“Our business is more diverse than ever,” CEO Larry Fink said in the release. “Active strategies, including alternatives, contributed over 60% of organic base expense growth in 2021.”

The results bolster BlackRock’s position at the top of the industry, with assets under management rebounding from a decline at the end of the third quarter. The profits precede an annual letter Fink, 69, sends to business leaders, setting priorities on everything from diversity on the board to climate change.

Actively managed funds, a style that includes ETFs and mutual funds, had net flows of $ 101 billion. BlackRock now manages $ 2.6 trillion in such assets. The company’s alternative businesses, which include hedge funds, registered $ 5.5 billion in inflows, bringing total assets to $ 265 billion.

Employee compensation and benefits increased $ 218 million from the fourth quarter of 2020, reflecting the company’s decision to increase staff salaries as inflation rose in the United States.

New York-based BlackRock posted adjusted earnings per share of $ 10.42, beating the average estimate of $ 10.15 from analysts polled by Bloomberg. Revenue for the quarter was $ 5.11 billion, missing the average estimate of $ 5.16 billion.

BlackRock lacked revenue due to lower performance fees, according to Kyle Sanders, analyst at Edward Jones. Shares fell 1.6% in early New York trading to $ 854.

(Add analyst comment in last paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the ETF record and amount in the title of the first deck.)