BlackRock Earnings: Market Losses Offset Strong Inflows in Volatile Q1

Key Morningstar Metrics for BlackRock

• Fair Value Estimate
  : $1,150.00
• Morningstar Rating
  : ★★★
• Morningstar Economic Moat Rating
  : Wide
• Morningstar Uncertainty Rating
  : High

What We Thought of BlackRock’s Earnings

BlackRock BLK ended the first quarter of 2026 with $13.895 trillion in assets under management, up 19.9% year over year but down 1.0% sequentially. The firm benefited from strong flows into its exchange-traded fund offerings, offset by market losses during the quarter.

Why it matters: BlackRock continues to outperform its traditional asset management peers from an organic AUM growth perspective, with its mix of index funds and ETFs, while an expansion of its private capital platform has only added to its ability to generate positive flows on a more consistent basis.

• Net long-term inflows of $136 billion during the first quarter represented an annualized organic AUM growth rate of 4.2%, above the midrange of our annual target rate range of 3% to 5%. We expect to see lower growth rates from most of BlackRock’s peers when they report.
• The iShares platform remains the biggest driver of flows, with BlackRock picking up another $132 billion in net long-term inflows—equivalent to a 9.7% annualized organic AUM growth rate—from its ETF business during the March quarter.

The bottom line: We expected the quarter to be more difficult, given the impact the Iran war had on the equity and credit markets in March, but BlackRock continues to benefit from the diversification of its investment portfolio, which allows clients to rotate more quickly during volatile markets and keeps assets in-house.

• As there was little in the wide-moat-rated firm’s first-quarter results that varied from our expectations or would alter our long-term view of the firm, we expect to leave our $1,150 per share fair value estimate in place. We view the shares as slightly to modestly undervalued.
• We expect to remain conservative in our near-term assumptions for BlackRock and the rest of the US-based asset managers, believing that the Iran war and governmental policies put in place this past year will keep the equity and fixed-income markets more volatile.