BlackRock Fourth-Quarter Results Beat the Street

BlackRock Inc, the world's largest money manager, reported a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit as assets under management increased.

Net income fell to $813 million, or $4.77 per share, from $841 million, or $4.86 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding a compensation program associated with shareholder PNC Financial Services Group Inc, earnings were $4.82 a share, beating the analysts' average estimate of $4.68, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The New York-based company ended the fourth quarter with $4.65 trillion in assets under management, up 8 percent from a year earlier.

The firm had $87.8 billion in net inflows for the quarter. Long-term net inflows for the year came to $181.3 billion for an organic growth rate of 4.5 percent, up from 3.5 percent in 2013.

Of the $87.8 billion that investors poured into BlackRock's long-term funds during the quarter, half went into the iShares exchange-traded fund business, which ended the quarter with $1 trillion.

BlackRock's active retail business posted inflows of $23 billion, ending the quarter with $534.3 billion. The institutional business posted inflows of $20.7 billion, ending the quarter with $2.8 trillion.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)