Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Portfolio > ETFs

BlackRock Sees ETF Crunch Even as Assets Reach $6.3 Trillion

By Sabrina Willmer

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Even as BlackRock Inc.’s assets advanced to $6.3 trillion and its growth appears unstoppable, there are signs the firm isn’t invincible.

Net flows for its global iShares exchange-traded funds declined 46 percent in the first quarter to $34.6 billion from a year earlier. Yet the world’s largest asset manager’s earnings beat estimates, which pushed the shares up as much as 3.1 percent Thursday.

Choppy markets spurred traders to devote less cash to ETFs and some moved into lower-cost products. ETFs charging 0.2 percent or less have accounted for 82 percent of the industry’s net flows this year, up from 77 percent in the fourth quarter, according to research from Bloomberg Intelligence.

Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive officer, said investors moved money in the quarter because of a spike in market volatility and changes in U.S. tax law.

“The performance of ETFs validated the use of them,” Fink said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Growth in BlackRock’s ETF business will likely be more subdued compared to the last several years. The money manager came to dominate the market as brokers poured cash into ETFs in anticipation of a rule requiring them to put clients’ interests ahead of their own when handling retirement investments.

“Sustaining growth at double-digits in terms of asset flows will be really tough to do” for BlackRock, said Kyle Sanders, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co.

Still, analysts say that BlackRock’s ETFs held up well given the circumstances of the markets. Advisers continued to allocate money to the products.

“It shows that these passive structures are here to stay and people will buy them whether the market is good or bad,” said Sanders.

Fink said during the earnings call he expects ETFs to double in size over the next three to five years.

As BlackRock’s less expensive ETFs continue to capture most of the money, that could put pressure on revenue. In October 2016, the firm reduced prices on 15 core ETFs aimed at price sensitive retail clients and financial advisers. The money manager is betting that it can offset any fee cuts with greater volume.

“I think that is why in the short-term seeing money go to this low-cost stuff might be tough, but it sets them up better for the future,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas.

With a good chunk of its assets sitting in passive, BlackRock is trying to diversify into higher-fee alternative offerings and building out its technology business. The firm is depending on its risk-management system, known as Aladdin, to help with its technology push.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.