BlackRock profit jumps as market rally lifts assets to record $15.34 trillion

BlackRock’s assets climbed to a record $15.34 trillion as a stock-market rally and fresh ETF money pushed the world’s largest asset manager to another quarter of outsized growth. The firm said second-quarter profit jumped, adjusted earnings reached $13.91 a share and revenue came in at $7.08 billion, both ahead of expectations, sending its shares sharply higher in premarket trading.

The scale of the increase shows how quickly wealth is concentrating inside a handful of giant passive platforms. BlackRock’s assets were up from $13.89 trillion three months earlier and $12.53 trillion a year ago, a gain driven by both market appreciation and new client cash. The firm said second-quarter net inflows totaled $192 billion, including $71.6 billion into equity products and $92 billion into fixed-income products, while first-half inflows reached a record $321 billion. That flow profile matters because rising markets and incoming money reinforce one another inside the ETF and index-fund business, amplifying BlackRock’s already dominant reach across retirement accounts and institutional portfolios.

BlackRock said the quarter’s adjusted operating margin rose to 45.9%, the highest in almost five years, as technology services and subscription revenue increased 13% from a year earlier. Laurence D. Fink said market fundamentals remained strong and well supported, with higher margins and earnings momentum helped by new technology. The company also returned $450 million to shareholders through repurchases in the quarter and lifted its planned quarterly buyback rate to $550 million, while increasing its full-year 2026 buyback target to $2 billion from $1.8 billion.

The firm entered 2026 with momentum after ending 2025 with about $14 trillion in assets and record full-year net inflows of $698 billion, including $342 billion in the fourth quarter. It has also been pressing deeper into private markets, spending about $28 billion on Global Infrastructure Partners, HPS Investment Partners and Preqin to widen its investment and data business. That expansion gives BlackRock more ways to gather assets just as major U.S. equity indexes posted their biggest quarterly gains since 2020, underscoring how much of the asset manager’s record now rests on the same market forces that are swelling its rivals and shaping the rest of Wall Street.