10:07 AM
BlackRock 2nd-Qtr Profit Falls 11 Percent
Net income at New York-based BlackRock dropped to $554 million, or $3.08 per share, from $619 million, or $3.21 per share, a year earlier.
Investor interest in BlackRock's iShares unit, the top manager of U.S. exchange-traded funds, saved the firm from an even deeper profit decline. Investors added a net $6.1 billion into iShares funds in the quarter, while withdrawing $2.3 billion combined from BlackRock's other long-term funds.
But the inflows were overwhelmed by the impact of declining worldwide markets, which cut $76.8 billion from BlackRock's long-term assets during the quarter, and currency moves, which trimmed another $16 billion.
The MSCI All Country Index lost 6.4 percent in the second quarter while the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 2.8 percent.
All told, BlackRock's assets under management at June 30 totaled $3.56 trillion, down 3 percent during the quarter and down 3 percent from a year earlier.
BlackRock's second-quarter revenue declined 5 percent from a year earlier to $2.2 billion. Investment advisory and related fees dropped 5 percent to $2 billion.
Excluding certain expenses, BlackRock earned $3.10 per share. On that basis, analysts, on average, expected $3.01, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of BlackRock closed down 0.5 percent to $176.15 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have lost 1 percent so far this year, trailing the 8 percent gain in the price of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
(Reporting by Aaron Pressman in Boston; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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