BlackRock managed $6.84 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, up 5% from three months earlier and 8.6% from a year earlier, the firm said Friday in its earnings statement.
Net inflows across all investment strategies and client segments more than doubled to $151 billion in the quarter ended June 30, compared to net inflows of $64.7 billion in the previous quarter and net inflows of $20 billion in second quarter 2018.
BlackRock's second quarter net inflows were driven by investors rebalancing and derisking portfolios by reducing equity assets and increasing investment in fixed income and cash management "to achieve the intended asset allocation in their portfolios," Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, told analysts during a conference call.
Net inflows into long-term strategies were $125.4 billion in the second quarter, compared to $59 billion in the previous quarter and $14.5 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
As Mr. Fink noted, fixed-income strategies led BlackRock's net inflows in the second quarter, bringing in $110.4 billion compared to net inflows of $79.9 billion in the prior three-month period and net inflows of $26.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
Fixed-income net inflows were bolstered by $65 billion of investment in BlackRock's suite of actively managed bond funds and by sizable new mandates from two clients, which BlackRock spokeswoman Melissa Garville declined to identify in an email.
Cash management funds had $25.6 billion of net inflows in the quarter ended June 30, up from net inflows of $5.7 billion in both the previous quarter and second quarter 2018.
Multiasset strategies had net inflows of $6.2 billion in the second quarter vs. net outflows of $1.7 billion in the earlier quarter and net inflows of $8.4 billion in the second quarter 2018.
BlackRock's equity strategies recovered and attracted net inflows of $5.9 billion in the most recent quarter after net outflows of $26.1 billion in the three-month period ended March 31 and $22.4 billion of net outflows in the quarter ended March 31, 2018.
Alternative investment strategies experienced net inflows of $2.9 billion in the quarter ended June 30, $6.8 billion in the previous quarter and $2.1 billion in the second quarter a year ago.
BlackRock's iShares exchange-traded fund business saw net inflows of $36.1 billion in the second quarter vs. net inflows of $30.7 billion in the previous quarter and $17.8 billion of net inflows in the year-earlier quarter. Meanwhile, assets managed in iShares increased 4.4% compared to three months earlier to $2.01 trillion and were up 13.1% from June 30, 2018.
BlackRock's retail business brought in $1.9 billion of net inflows in the latest quarter, compared to net outflows of $813 million in the first quarter and net inflows of $5.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.
