BlackRock's AUM down in quarter; firm records $28.9 billion in institutional net outflows

BlackRock's assets under management totaled $4.721 trillion as of June 30, down 1% from three months earlier but up 3% from a year ago, BlackRock's earnings statement released Wednesday showed.

Net outflows to BlackRock's long-term strategies were $7.3 billion for the second quarter, compared to net inflows of $70.4 billion for the first quarter. The outflows were driven by net outflows of $27.26 billion in equities. Fixed income saw net inflows of $12.85 billion; multiasset strategies, net inflows of $5.05 billion; and core alternatives, net inflows of $2.06 billion.

In a conference call, Laurence D. Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said clients needing cash drove the equity outflows. “Executing on our plan to reinvigorate the performance of our fundamental active equity platform remains critical to our success,” Mr. Fink added. “We still have work to do.”

The company's institutional business saw long-term net outflows of $28.92 billion for the quarter, compared to net inflows of $20.79 billion for during the last quarter.

BlackRock's iShares exchange-traded fund business experienced net inflows of $10.9 billion, compared to net inflows of $35.48 billion in the previous quarter.

BlackRock's global retail business, meanwhile, generated more than $10.8 billion of long-term net inflows, compared to net inflows of $14.17 billion in the first quarter of 2015.

Assets in BlackRock's institutional business as of June 30 were $2.8 trillion, down 1.3% from March 31 but up 1.2% from June 30, 2014.

Assets in its iShares business, meanwhile, totaled $1.076 trillion, flat from three months earlier but up 8.3% from a year earlier.

Revenue for the money manager was $2.91 billion in the second quarter, up 7% from the previous quarter and up 5% from the second quarter of 2014. Net income, meanwhile, was $838 million, up 1% from the prior quarter but flat from the year-earlier period.