BlackRock's AUM down 2% in quarter; fixed income leads inflows

BlackRock's assets under management totaled $4.525 trillion as of Sept. 30, down 2% from three months earlier but up 10% from a year ago, said an earnings statement released Wednesday.

The drop reflected a 24% quarterly decrease in advisory AUM to $23.2 billion due to the disposition of some portfolio liquidations. Net inflows to BlackRock's long-term strategies were about $28.7 billion for the latest quarter, reflecting inflows of $11.11 billion in fixed income, $10.23 billion to equities, $7.42 billion into multiasset strategies and net outflows of $80 million from core alternatives.

BlackRock's iShares business saw long-term net inflows of $18.2 billion, followed by its institutional business with $5.62 billion in net inflows and retail, $4.86 billion. “We saw strong interest in our global unconstrained fixed-income platform in the third quarter, raising more than $4 billion of net new flows in our Strategic Income Opportunities and Fixed Income Global Opportunities funds, collectively, and that momentum has continued into the fourth quarter,” said Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock chairman and CEO, in the statement.

Assets in BlackRock's institutional business as of Sept. 30 were $2.72 trillion, down 2% from June 30. Meanwhile, assets in the firm's iShares ETF business totaled $974.17 billion, also down 2% from three months earlier. Retail assets in the quarter were $525.48 billion, another 2% decrease from June 30.

The asset management giant reported revenue of $2.85 billion in the third quarter, up 3% from the previous quarter and up 15% from the third quarter of 2013. Net income was $917 million, up 13% from the three months ended June 30 and up 26% from the year-earlier period.