BlackRock's 3Q Profit Rises 15%

BlackRock Inc <BLK.N>, the world's largest money manager, said on Wednesday that its third-quarter profit rose 15 percent, citing market growth and strong global demand from its retail and institutional clients.

The New York-based asset manager reported net income of $730 million, or $4.21 per share, up from $642 million, or $3.65 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding certain items such as compensation expense, earnings were $3.88 a share, in line with the analysts' average forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

During the quarter, investors poured $25.3 billion into long-term funds, including $20.3 billion of net inflows to the company's iShares exchange-traded funds business.

IShares, the largest U.S. provider of exchange-traded funds, now accounts for roughly 23 percent of BlackRock's total assets under management.

Investors added more money than they withdrew across asset classes during the quarter, putting $11.3 billion into equities funds, $7.5 billion into fixed-income funds, $4.9 billion into multi-asset products and $1.7 billion into alternative products.

BlackRock ended the quarter with total assets under management of $4.1 trillion, including new money and market gains.