BlackRock, Inc (BLK) CEO Laurence Fink on Q1 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

BlackRock, Inc (NYSE:BLK) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 13, 2022 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Christopher Meade - General Counsel

Gary Shedlin - Chief Financial Officer

Laurence Fink - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Robert Kapito - President

Conference Call Participants

Craig Siegenthaler - Bank of America

Dan Fannon - Jefferies

Bill Katz - Citigroup

Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley

Brian Bedell - Deutsche Bank

Brennan Hawken - UBS

Operator

Good morning. My name is Myra, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the BlackRock Incorporated First Quarter 2022 Earnings Teleconference.

Our hosts for today’s call will be Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Laurence D. Fink; Chief Financial Officer, Gary S. Shedlin; President, Robert S. Kapito; and General Counsel, Christopher J. Meade. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. [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 say today. BlackRock assumes no duty and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

So with that, I’ll turn it over to Gary.

Gary Shedlin

Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. It’s my pleasure to present results for the first quarter of 2022. Before I turn it over to Larry, I’ll review our financial performance and business results. While our earnings release discloses both GAAP and as adjusted financial results, I’ll be focusing primarily on our as adjusted results.

As many of you know, beginning in the first quarter of 2022, we updated our definitions of as adjusted operating income, operating margin, and net income to exclude the impact of intangible asset amortization, other acquisition-related costs, and contingent consideration fair value adjustments. We believe that excluding the impact of these expenses provides investors and management with a more useful understanding of our financial performance over time, while also increasing comparability with other asset management companies. BlackRock regularly reviews our disclosures with the goal of providing helpful information to our investors, and we may consider additional non-GAAP adjustments in the future.