BlackRock Q1 Profit Down

(RTTNews) - BlackRock Inc. (BLK) Thursday reported a sharp decline in first quarter net income attributable to the company to $657 million from $822 million in the prior year. Earnings per share were down 19 percent to $3.92 compared to $4.84 last year. The result included restructuring charge of $76 million from initiative to streamline and simplify organization. On an adjusted basis, earnings $711 million or $4.25 per share.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $4.29 per share. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items. Revenue for the quarter declined 4 percent to $2.624 billion from $2.723 billion in the prior year. Total AUMs were down one percent to $4.737 trillion from $4.774 trillion a year ago.

Laurence Fink, chairman and CEO said, "BlackRock generated long-term net inflows of $36 billion in the quarter, driven by positive global flows across both active and index products. Over the last twelve months, we saw $118 billion of long-term net inflows, muting the impact of $148 billion of market and FX headwinds over the same period."