The giant money management firm BlackRock is now managing a record $4 trillion after customers put more money into the company’s stock mutual funds and exchange traded funds.
The flow of new money helped push BlackRock’s profit in the third quarter up 14 percent from a year earlier. The company said net income in quarter was $730 million, or $4.21 a share, up from $642 million, or $3.66 cents a year ago. The results were roughly in line with the expectations of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
But BlackRock’s financial results were less impressive when compared with the second quarter of the year, as net income and revenue fell slightly. But the company attracted new money from its customers to a number of its product lines.
The iShares exchange trade funds, one of the fastest growing parts of the company, drew in $20 billion, and $8 billion into its retail funds. That was offset by the nearly $11 billion that big institutions took out of active and indexed stock funds. Overall inflows were $25.2 billion.
The company’s chief executive, Laurence D. Fink, said in a statement that the growth came despite the hesitation that investors have had in putting new money to work, given all the uncertainty out of Washington.
“Fundamentals continue to be outweighed by policy decisions and global growth is dictated more by central bankers and elected officials than business leaders,†Mr. Fink said.
