BlackRock's active business driving revenue

A juxtaposition of BlacRock Inc.'s assets against the company's fees shows contrasting effects on its client base and its business lines. Institutional clients make up about 60% of BlackRock's $6.96 trillion assets under management, but account for only 32% of its fee revenue. Retail clients, however, provide only 10% of its asset base, but nearly the same share of total fee revenue as institutional clients.

A similar effect can be seen when AUM and fees are compared by fund style. BlackRock's index products make up 37% of its AUM, but only 9% of its revenue. Nearly half of its $2.98 billion third-quarter revenue came from its active products. Its iShares ETF business had $2 trillion in assets at the end of the third quarter, $1.5 trillion of which was in equity products.

In addition, iShares led BlackRock's business lines in Q3 net flows with $41.5 billion of the company's total $84.2 billion in net inflows.