BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

July 14, 2023 7:30 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time. I'd like to welcome everyone to the BlackRock Incorporated Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Teleconference.

Our host for today will be Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Laurence D. Fink; Chief Financial Officer, Martin S. Small; President, Robert S. Kapito; and General Counsel, Christopher J. Meade. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

Mr. Meade, you may begin your conference.

Christopher Meade

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 see today. BlackRock assumes no duty and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

So with that, I will turn it over to Martin.

Martin Small

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. It's my pleasure to present results for the second quarter of 2023.

Before I turn it over to Larry, I will review our financial performance and business results. Our earnings release discloses both GAAP and as adjusted financial results. I'll be focusing primarily on our as adjusted results.

As a reminder, beginning in the first quarter of 2023, we updated our definitions of as adjusted operating income, operating margin, nonoperating income, and net income. The adjustments exclude the compensation expense impact of mark-to-market volatility associated with certain deferred cash compensation plans and the non-operating impact of an economic hedge, which the company began in 2023.

Clients entrusted BlackRock with an industry-leading $190 billion of net inflows in the first half of 2023. Our $9.4 trillion in assets, 9.4 trillion units of trust are up over $830 billion since year end.

This increase reflects continued strong organic growth and ongoing client confidence in the work that BlackRock is doing on their behalf as markets evolve. Clients choose BlackRock for performance. We delivered durable long-term investment performance by executing on alpha opportunities, sourcing unique deals and managing risk.

The foundation of a market-leading asset management platform is comprehensive, high-quality investment products, with strong long-term investment performance. Investors and asset owners choose portfolio goals and BlackRock enables them through our investment products and solutions.