BlackRock shares jump 6.6% as assets top $15 trillion

BlackRock became the first investment firm to manage more than $15 trillion in assets, posting Q2 adjusted earnings of $13.91 a share that beat estimates.

"Market fundamentals are strong and well supported, with higher margins and earnings momentum catalyzed by new technology," Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said in a statement.

The New York-based asset manager pulled in $192 billion of client cash during the quarter, up from $68 billion a year earlier. Net income rose 20 percent to $1.9 billion. Adjusted operating margin reached 45.9 percent, its highest in almost five years.

BlackRock shares jumped 6.6 percent on Wednesday, their biggest one-day gain in more than a year, helping push the S&P Financials index to a record high. The company increased its planned share buybacks in 2026 to $2 billion from $1.8 billion.

Metric	Actual	Consensus	Beat/Miss
Revenue	$7.08B	$6.85B	+3.4%
Adjusted EPS	$13.91	$12.59	+$1.32
Adjusted Operating Margin	45.9%	44.2%	+170bps

Assets under management jumped to $15.34 trillion from $12.53 trillion a year earlier and $13.89 trillion in the first quarter, fueled by buoyant equity markets and record ETF inflows. The iShares ETF franchise drove much of the growth, with equity products accounting for $71.6 billion of net flows and fixed-income products contributing $92 billion.

BlackRock's private markets push also gained traction. The firm, which has spent about $28 billion buying infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners, private credit firm HPS Investment Partners and data provider Preqin, reported $15.4 billion in private markets net inflows. Private credit contributed $6 billion and infrastructure added $5.2 billion.

The earnings beat was broad-based, Barclays analysts said in a note, with profit margins expanding more than Wall Street expected. Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren wrote that BlackRock continues to outperform its traditional asset management peers.

The strong results lifted shares of competitors as well. KKR, Ares Management and Blackstone all gained following the report.

The guidance raise and record AUM signal management expects continued momentum from ETF inflows and private markets expansion. Investors will watch the next quarterly update for progress toward BlackRock's target of $400 billion in gross private markets fundraising from 2025 to 2030.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.