Blackrock, Inc. 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

Good morning, everyone. I'm Chris Meade, the General Counsel of BlackRock. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that during the course of this call, we may make a number of forward-looking statements. We call your attention to the fact that BlackRock's actual results may, of course, differ from these statements. As you know, BlackRock has filed reports with the SEC, which lists some of the factors that may cause the results of BlackRock to differ materially from what we say today. BlackRock assumes no duty and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn it over to Martin.

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to present results for the third quarter of 2026. Before I turn it over to Larry, I'll review our financial performance and business results. Our earnings release discloses both GAAP and as adjusted financial results. A reconciliation between GAAP and our as adjusted results has been included in the tables attached to today's press release. I'll be focusing primarily on our as adjusted results. A year ago, our clients were focused on managing uncertainty around inflation rates and growth. Today, they're focused on capturing the opportunities created by technology and artificial intelligence. They're focused on infrastructure investment and a renaissance for income investing. They're aiming to secure returns, fueled from a new wave of productivity and innovation. There's more money in motion across global capital markets, and there's expanding opportunities for BlackRock and our clients.

They're powered by earnings-driven returns, higher yields, and broader opportunities to diversify and manage risk through our whole portfolio approach. The breadth of our platform is deepening our relationships with clients across all channels, retail and institutional, and all over the world. Capital is flowing into the infrastructure required to power AI and digital transformation. Wealth portfolios are broadening beyond traditional allocations into personalized solutions delivered at scale, and retirement is being reshaped by growing demand for income and broader investment access. When clients need advice on capital markets, portfolio construction, or a partner to deploy capital at scale across public and private markets, they're coming to BlackRock. We've methodically invested through cycles to build a scaled platform, one that can connect clients across public and private markets with technology. It's paying off now in our results and in the accelerating pipeline ahead.

Clients entrusted us with nearly $870 billion of net inflows over the last 12 months, driving 10% organic base fee growth. That is not one product or one region carrying the firm. It is broad-based across client channels, asset classes, and geographies. As we set out in our 2030 plan at last year's Investor Day, we are driving growth in higher value, higher base fee rate categories, and our business mix across public, private, and technology is creating more durable and all-weather growth in revenue and earnings. Shareholders are benefiting from that growth. In our first comparable quarter since the HPS close, year-on-year EPS growth accelerated to over 35%. High momentum across our business is translating into stronger financial outcomes. We again delivered double-digit growth in revenue, operating income, and earnings per share, with all three measures reaching new records.

Our scaled and disciplined financial rubric are helping translate growth into the bottom line. Our operating margin reached 47.8%, up 320 basis points year over year. In the third quarter, BlackRock generated $205 billion of net inflows. Organic base fee growth of 11% marks our ninth consecutive quarter at or above 5%. Our growth continues to broaden across active ETFs, private markets, systematic, SMAs, digital assets, and technology. These capabilities are scaling simultaneously, demonstrating the power of BlackRock's platform breadth and the durability of our growth model. Third quarter revenue of $7.8 billion was 19% higher year over year, driven by organic base fee growth, the impact of higher markets on average AUM, higher performance fees, and higher technology services and subscription revenue. Operating income of $3.3 billion was up 27% year over year.

Earnings per share of $15.93 increased 38% versus a year ago, also reflecting higher non-operating income and a lower diluted share count in the current quarter. Non-operating results for the quarter included $164 million of net investment gains, primarily due to mark-to-market non-cash gains linked to our minority investments in Securitize and Circle. Our as adjusted tax rate for the third quarter was approximately 24%. We continue to estimate that 25% is a reasonable projected tax run rate for the fourth quarter of 2026. The actual effective tax rate may differ because of non-recurring or discrete items or potential changes in tax legislation. Third quarter base fee and securities lending revenue of $6 billion increased 20% year over year, reflecting the positive impact of market beta on average AUM, organic base fee growth, and higher securities lending revenue.

On an equivalent day count basis, our annualized effective fee rate was approximately flat compared to the second quarter. Sustained client demand for high-value categories, including private markets, active ETFs, and systematic, continues to support fee rates on net inflows that are well above the firm's blended effective fee rate. Performance fees of $630 million increased 22% from a year ago, primarily reflecting higher revenue from alternatives, including $110 million of performance fees from HPS. Quarterly technology services and subscription revenue was up 14% compared to a year ago, reflecting sustained demand for our full range of technology offerings. Annual contract value, or ACV, increased 12% year over year. On a constant currency basis, we estimate ACV would have increased 13% from a year ago. We remain committed to low- to mid-teens ACV growth over the long term.

Total expense increased 14% year-over-year, primarily driven by higher compensation, sales asset and account, and G&A expense. Employee compensation and benefit expense was up 12% year-over-year, reflecting higher incentive compensation linked to higher operating income and higher performance-related compensation versus the prior year period. Sales asset and account expense increased 22% compared to a year ago, driven by higher distribution and servicing costs and direct fund expense. G&A expense was up 6% year-over-year, primarily due to higher technology investment spend. Consistent with our G&A outlook provided in January, after annualizing for the impact of HPS and Preqin, we continue to expect a mid-single-digit percentage increase in full-year G&A. We continued to deliver margin expansion on recurring fee-related earnings.

Excluding the impact of all performance fees and related compensation, our adjusted operating margin for the third quarter would have been 48.6%, up 230 basis points year-over-year. Our capital management strategy remains consistent. We invest first in the business and then return excess cash to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. In the third quarter, we repurchased $550 million worth of shares. At present, based on our capital spending plans for the year and subject to market and other conditions, we anticipate repurchasing at least $550 million worth of shares in the fourth quarter. That is consistent with our previous guidance communicated in July. Turning to flows. BlackRock's third quarter net inflows of $205 billion were diversified across product types, client channels, regions, and active and index strategies. ETFs generated $135 billion of net inflows in the third quarter.

Index bond ETFs and precision ETFs led the way, generating $61 billion and $41 billion of net inflows respectively. Continued demand for our growing lineup of active ETFs added $22 billion of net inflows. Our digital assets ETPs raised $8 billion in the quarter. Our ETFs have now delivered a sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit organic base fee growth, powered by higher value ETF categories such as active and precision. Retail net inflows of $23 billion were driven by sustained momentum in liquid alternatives, broad-based demand for our U.S. active fixed income offerings, and continued inflows across Aperio and SpiderRock. Institutional active net inflows of $44 billion were positive across all product types and were led by strength in private markets, fixed income, systematic equities, and liquid alternatives. Institutional index net outflows of $27 billion were concentrated in low-fee index equities.

In private markets, we saw $15 billion of net inflows, mainly from deployment across infrastructure and private credit and the onboarding of a real estate mandate. This quarter, we updated our earnings supplement to provide greater transparency into our private markets activity and drivers of fee-paying AUM. These include metrics such as fundraising, deployment, total AUM, and dry powder, which can be found on pages 9 through 11 of our earnings supplement. Finally, our cash management platform generated $31 billion of net inflows in the third quarter. These results include fundings into customized liquidity solutions, demand for government funds, and continued growth from Circle. At our Investor Day in June 2025, we set out a vision and a business plan for BlackRock in 2030.

Five quarters into the plan, we're delivering at or well above its targets, higher and more consistent organic base fee growth, a more all-weather, durable mix of asset management and technology capabilities across public and private markets, consistent operating margin expansion, and higher earnings per share. This third quarter notched another strong step on our way to 2030. In more uneven markets, we generated record revenue, operating income, and EPS, a more than 47% operating margin, and 11% organic base fee growth. The opportunities ahead for BlackRock continue to expand. Clients are looking for a partner that can connect the whole portfolio to navigate a new environment of capital scarcity, higher long-term yields, and a redesign of diversification. I don't believe we can evaluate the investment environment as risk on or risk off any longer. This new environment is about capital allocation acumen.

It's about financing advantages through scale, access, and breadth of opportunities. It's about redesigning diversification across the client portfolio. Our industry is being reshaped by the blending of public and private markets and growing demand for technology and data to secure success in client portfolios. These conditions play directly to BlackRock's strengths. Client engagement is higher than ever, and we enter our seasonally strongest fourth quarter with significant momentum across the firm and a long runway for growth ahead. With that, I'll turn it over to Larry.