BlackRock Q3 2026: $205B of inflows lifted AUM to $15.5T; EPS $10.57

BlackRock manages client money across index funds, iShares ETFs, active strategies, private markets and cash, and reports the total as assets under management (AUM). It earns most of its revenue as a percentage of those assets, so its results depend on two things: how much new money clients hand it, and what markets do to the money it already manages. BlackRock’s Q3 2026 earnings, reported before the open on October 14, separate the two unusually cleanly. Clients added $205.5 billion of net inflows, while market moves subtracted $60.1 billion. AUM still rose $143.6 billion in the quarter to $15.49 trillion; all of that growth came from client money rather than markets (our arithmetic).

The second thing to know about BLK this quarter is that its two earnings figures moved in opposite directions. GAAP diluted EPS was $10.57, up 25% from a year earlier but down from $12.19 in the second quarter. As-adjusted diluted EPS, the figure management leads with, was $15.93, up 38% from a year earlier and up from $13.91 in Q2. One noncash acquisition charge explains most of the gap, and this piece walks through it below.

BlackRock Q3 2026 results at a glance

	3Q26	2Q26	3Q25
Total revenue	$7,752M	$7,084M	$6,509M
— Base fees and securities lending	$6,036M	$5,726M	$5,046M
— Performance fees	$630M	$305M	$516M
— Technology services and subscription	$588M	$566M	$515M
— Distribution fees	$414M	$395M	$355M
— Advisory and other	$84M	$92M	$77M
Total expense (GAAP)	$5,424M	$4,623M	$4,554M
Operating income (GAAP)	$2,328M	$2,461M	$1,955M
Operating margin (GAAP)	30.0%	34.7%	30.0%
Operating income (as adjusted)	$3,330M	$2,916M	$2,621M
Operating margin (as adjusted)	47.8%	45.9%	44.6%
Net income attributable to BlackRock (GAAP)	$1,659M	$1,914M	$1,323M
Net income (as adjusted)	$2,621M	$2,291M	$1,907M
Diluted EPS (GAAP)	$10.57	$12.19	$8.43
Diluted EPS (as adjusted)	$15.93	$13.91	$11.55
AUM (end of period)	$15.49T	$15.34T	$13.46T
Average AUM	$15.46T	n/a	$12.96T

“As adjusted” is BlackRock’s non-GAAP measure. It adds back acquisition-related costs (amortization of intangible assets, retention pay for acquired staff, deal-related overhead and changes in the fair value of contingent consideration), strips out the market swings on hedged deferred-pay plans, and treats the units issued to the sellers of HPS Investment Partners as if they were already common shares. The as-adjusted operating margin also uses a smaller revenue base: it removes distribution fees and the part of advisory fees that BlackRock passes on to the brokers and platforms that sell its funds. The release gives the second quarter’s income statement but not its average AUM.

For the first nine months, revenue was $21.53 billion (up from $17.21 billion), GAAP diluted EPS $36.82 (from $28.21) and as-adjusted diluted EPS $42.37 (from $34.89). Year-to-date net inflows were $526.9 billion.

In the release, chairman and CEO Laurence D. Fink said: “Clients entrusted us with $205 billion of net inflows this quarter, and $869 billion over the last year. Our results reflect the scale of BlackRock, with 12% technology ACV growth and net inflows across every asset class, client type, region, and across active and index.”

Did BlackRock issue guidance for Q3 2026?

No. BlackRock does not issue quarterly revenue or earnings guidance, and its second-quarter release, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to the July 15, 2026 8-K, gave no quantitative outlook for the third quarter. The only yardstick the filings support is the year-ago quarter: revenue rose 19% to $7,752 million, GAAP diluted EPS rose 25% to $10.57 and as-adjusted diluted EPS rose 38% to $15.93, the growth rates BlackRock reports in its October 14 release.

Inflows did the work; markets did not

The AUM rollforward, the table that bridges June 30 to September 30, is the clearest view of the quarter:

$ billions	Total AUM	Equity	Fixed income	Private markets	Digital assets
June 30, 2026	15,344.6	8,888.2	3,390.2	329.1	48.8
Net inflows	+205.5	+52.4	+78.2	+15.3	+7.9
Realizations	−6.0	—	−0.6	−5.4	—
Market change	−60.1	+40.1	−117.4	−2.9	+22.9
FX impact	+4.3	+3.2	+3.0	−0.2	0.0
September 30, 2026	15,488.3	8,984.0	3,353.3	336.0	79.6

Realizations are capital BlackRock returns to clients when private funds sell investments or pay back loans; the company began reporting them separately from flows in 2025. Market change is the gain or loss in the value of assets already under management.

Fixed income took $78.2 billion of new money, the most of any asset class, yet ended the quarter smaller than it started because markets cut its value by $117.4 billion. Excluding fixed income, markets added about $57 billion across the rest of the book (our arithmetic). Digital assets grew 63% in the quarter to $79.6 billion, about three-quarters of it from market change (our arithmetic). Across the full twelve months the picture is reversed: of the $2.02 trillion rise in AUM since September 30, 2025, net inflows contributed $868.6 billion (about 43%) and market change $1.27 trillion (about 63%), with FX and realizations subtracting the rest (our arithmetic).

Where the inflows came from:

• iShares ETFs: $134.5 billion, about two-thirds of the total (our arithmetic). ETF inflows split into $50.9 billion of equity, $66.1 billion of fixed income, $7.9 billion of digital assets and $6.9 billion of commodities.
• Active strategies: $66.4 billion, which the CEO attributes to fixed income and systematic (rules-based, model-driven) franchises.
• Cash management: $30.7 billion.
• Institutional index: −$27.4 billion, the one large outflow line: institutional index mandates lost money even as ETFs gained.
• By region, long-term net inflows were $125 billion from the Americas, $31 billion from EMEA and $19 billion from Asia-Pacific.

Net inflows were almost identical to a year earlier ($204.6 billion in 3Q25). Over twelve months, the $868.6 billion of net inflows equals about 6% of AUM at September 30, 2025 (our arithmetic).

Organic base fee growth and the fee rate

Not every dollar of inflow is worth the same. A dollar in a low-cost index ETF earns BlackRock a fraction of what a dollar in a private credit fund earns. That is why BlackRock reports organic base fee growth: in its definition, the base fees earned on net new money over a period divided by the base fee run-rate at the start of the period. It was 11% annualized in the quarter and 10% over the last twelve months, against roughly 6% asset growth from twelve-month net inflows (our arithmetic). In our reading, that gap means the new money is skewed toward higher-fee products.

Base fees and securities lending revenue (securities lending is income from lending out securities held in client funds) rose $990 million, or 19.6%, from a year earlier to $6,036 million. Average AUM rose 19.3%. Divided one by the other, BlackRock earned about 15.6 basis points (hundredths of a percentage point) a year on average AUM, the same as a year earlier (our arithmetic, annualizing the quarter by four). The company attributes the year-over-year increase to organic base fee growth and the impact of market beta on average AUM; against Q2 it also cites one additional day in the quarter. Securities lending revenue was $253 million, against $203 million a year earlier, on higher spreads and higher balances on loan.

The fee mix is uneven. Private markets (infrastructure, private credit, private equity and real estate) were 2% of AUM at quarter-end but 11% of base fees and securities lending revenue, at $668 million. Equity was 57% of AUM and 51% of those fees, and ETFs alone produced $2,762 million, or 46%. Cash management was 7% of AUM and 6% of fees.

Private markets: inflows and money going back to clients

Private markets AUM rose to $336.0 billion from $329.1 billion. Net inflows of $15.3 billion were partly offset by $5.4 billion of realizations and a $2.9 billion market decline. Private credit, the largest category at $152.3 billion, took in $5.0 billion and returned $2.9 billion; infrastructure, at $119.8 billion, took in $7.6 billion. Over twelve months the pattern is more pronounced: $52.5 billion of net inflows but $30.7 billion of realizations, so private markets AUM grew only $15.1 billion, about 5% (our arithmetic). In our reading, this is the normal life cycle of closed-end funds, which hand money back as they sell assets, so private markets AUM will grow more slowly than gross fundraising suggests.

The CEO said BlackRock has “raised $68 billion in private markets over the last twelve months, and our AI Infrastructure Partnership made its first deployment this quarter.” The supplement defines gross fundraising as new capital commitments and subscriptions to BlackRock’s private funds and accounts.

Private markets base fees were $668 million, up 2% from a year earlier and 5% from Q2 (our arithmetic). Private markets performance fees were $191 million, down from $298 million a year earlier but up from $137 million in Q2.

Performance fees, technology and expenses

Performance fees, the share of investment gains BlackRock earns when a fund beats a hurdle, more than doubled from Q2 to $630 million (up 22% from a year earlier). Liquid alternatives, meaning hedge funds and hedge fund solutions, produced $409 million of it, about 65% (our arithmetic). The company says the year-over-year increase was “largely related to a single hedge fund with an annual performance measurement period that ends in the third quarter,” which suggests the third quarter carries a seasonal boost that will not repeat at the same level in Q4 (our reading, not a company statement).

Technology services and subscription revenue, which the company ties to demand for Aladdin, its investment and risk management platform used by other institutions, and multi-product solutions, rose 14% to $588 million, about 7.6% of revenue (our arithmetic). Annual contract value (ACV), the annualized value of recurring subscription contracts including signed but not yet billing deals, rose 12% from a year earlier. The release gives no dollar figure for ACV.

On the expense side, the earnings supplement shows as-adjusted expense up 14% from a year earlier, against 19% revenue growth. Employee compensation and benefits rose $83 million from a year earlier to $2,440 million, which the company says reflects higher operating income and performance fees partly offset by lower nonrecurring retention-related deferred compensation. Sales, asset and account expense rose $251 million to $1,413 million on higher average AUM. As-adjusted operating income grew 27% to $3,330 million while revenue grew 19%, which is how the as-adjusted margin widened by 3.2 percentage points to 47.8%. Excluding performance fees, revenue grew about 19% (our arithmetic), so the margin gain did not rest only on the fee spike (our reading).

Why GAAP and adjusted EPS diverged

GAAP diluted EPS of $10.57 sits $5.36 below the as-adjusted $15.93 (our arithmetic). On an after-tax basis, the release reconciles the gap as:

• Change in fair value of contingent consideration: $556 million after tax ($564 million pre-tax), against $11 million in Q2. Contingent consideration is the additional payment BlackRock may owe the sellers of businesses it bought, here Global Infrastructure Management, LLC (GIP) and HPS; the company says its fair value “is impacted by the share price of BlackRock common stock at the end of the period.” It is noncash and the company says it is primarily not tax-deductible. Alone, that is about $3.38 per diluted share (our arithmetic).
• Amortization of intangible assets: $207 million, the scheduled expensing of intangible assets acquired in deals.
• Acquisition-related compensation: $66 million and acquisition-related general and administration expense: $35 million.
• Hedged deferred compensation: $18 million.
• Noncontrolling interest – Subco: $80 million, the earnings attributable to the HPS sellers’ exchangeable units, which the adjusted figure counts as BlackRock’s.

Because the contingent-consideration charge is largely not deductible, the GAAP effective tax rate rose to 29.4% from 25.2% in both Q2 and a year earlier; the as-adjusted rate was 24.2%. That is why GAAP EPS fell from Q2 while adjusted EPS rose. Whichever figure a reader prefers, the size of the gap this quarter (about a third of adjusted EPS, our arithmetic) comes from an item linked to deals BlackRock has already done, not from the core fee business.

Adjusted EPS growth of 38% also outran adjusted operating income growth of 27%. The difference is nonoperating income: investment gains and interest outside the operating business. As adjusted, it was a gain of $127 million, against a loss of $106 million a year earlier, a $233 million pre-tax swing. The release says the quarter includes a noncash pre-tax gain of about $80 million on BlackRock’s minority investment in Securitize Corp. and about $22 million on its stake in Circle Internet Group, against a Circle-related loss of about $115 million a year earlier. Fink’s quote cites “a more than 35% increase in adjusted earnings per share”; the operating part of that growth was closer to the 27% operating-income figure (our reading).

Capital returned and investment performance

BlackRock repurchased $550 million of shares in the quarter and paid a cash dividend of $5.73 per share. Shares outstanding including Subco units were 162.2 million at September 30, against 163.2 million a year earlier; diluted weighted-average shares were 164.5 million.

The release also reports investment performance, which drives active inflows over time. At September 30, 92% of systematic active equity AUM and 73% of fundamental active equity AUM was above benchmark or peer median over one year; for taxable active fixed income the figure was 71% over one year and 85% over three years. These figures are BlackRock’s own, are preliminary, and past performance does not indicate future results.

What to watch in Q4

• Fixed income market values. Fixed income lost $117.4 billion to market change in Q3 despite $78.2 billion of net inflows. Fourth-quarter fees depend on where bond AUM starts and averages through the quarter.
• Performance fees after the hedge fund season. Q3 included a large annual hedge fund performance fee. Watch how much of the $630 million recurs and how private markets performance fees develop.
• Institutional index outflows. The −$27.4 billion institutional index line was the main drag on flows. Whether it is offset again by ETFs and active mandates will shape the organic growth rate.
• Contingent consideration. The company says the charge is impacted by BlackRock’s share price at period end, so GAAP EPS can swing widely from quarter to quarter while adjusted EPS does not.
• The pipeline the CEO describes. Fink says BlackRock is “entering our seasonally strongest fourth quarter with accelerating momentum.” That is management’s view; the Q4 release will show whether flows and organic base fee growth bear it out.

Quick answers

How much did BlackRock earn in Q3 2026?

Net income attributable to BlackRock was $1.66 billion, or $10.57 per diluted share, on a GAAP basis, on revenue of $7.75 billion. As adjusted, net income was $2.62 billion, or $15.93 per diluted share, against $11.55 a year earlier.

How much money flowed into BlackRock in Q3 2026?

Clients added $205.5 billion of net inflows, including $134.5 billion into iShares ETFs, $66.4 billion into active strategies and $30.7 billion into cash management. AUM ended the quarter at $15.49 trillion, up $143.6 billion, even though market moves subtracted $60.1 billion.

Why is BlackRock’s GAAP EPS so much lower than its adjusted EPS?

Mostly because of a $564 million noncash change in the fair value of contingent consideration for the GIP and HPS acquisitions, about $3.38 a share after tax, plus amortization of acquired intangibles and other deal-related costs. The adjusted figure excludes these items.

---

Sources and method. Every company figure is BlackRock’s own disclosure, read directly from SEC EDGAR and linked above. The income statement for the three months ended September 30, 2026, June 30, 2026 and September 30, 2025, the nine-month totals, revenue by product type, operating expense lines, the AUM rollforwards for the quarter, year to date and year over year (including private markets by category), net flows by client type, style and region, the GAAP and as-adjusted operating margin and tax rates, the GAAP-to-adjusted reconciliations, nonoperating income and the Securitize and Circle gains and losses, the 11% and 10% organic base fee growth rates, the 12% ACV growth, the $550 million of share repurchases, the $5.73 dividend, share counts, investment performance and Laurence D. Fink’s statements come from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-10-14 (accession 0001193125-26-420979) for the quarter ended 2026-09-30. The definitions of organic base fee growth, organic asset growth and gross fundraising come from Exhibit 99.2, the earnings release supplement in the same filing, as does the 14% year-over-year growth in as-adjusted expense; most of its charts are images, and we used it only for those items.

No consensus estimate is included. Whether the quarter beat or missed is judged only against the year-ago quarter, because BlackRock issued no quarterly guidance (its prior-quarter release, Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1 filed 2026-07-15, contains none). Pre-release estimates we found differed between outlets and we could not confirm the same figure from two named sources. This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: that the quarter’s AUM growth came entirely from client money; the ~$57 billion market gain outside fixed income; digital assets’ 63% quarterly growth and its market share of that; the 43% / 63% split of twelve-month AUM growth; the ETF share of inflows; the 19.6% and 19.3% growth rates and the ~15.6 basis point annualized fee rate; private markets’ 5% twelve-month AUM growth and its base fee changes; liquid alternatives’ ~65% share of performance fees; technology’s ~7.6% share of revenue; revenue growth excluding performance fees; twelve-month net inflows as ~6% of beginning AUM; the $5.36 GAAP-to-adjusted EPS gap, the ~$3.38 per-share contingent-consideration effect and the gap’s ~one-third share of adjusted EPS. These are approximations, not reported numbers. The interpretation — that private markets AUM will grow more slowly than fundraising because of realizations, that Q3 performance fees carry a seasonal element, and that operating growth was closer to 27% than to the 38% EPS figure — is our analysis, not a company statement or a forecast.

Related: Bank of America Q3 2026, Morgan Stanley Q3 2026 and Progressive Q3 2026, also reported that day, and Goldman Sachs Q3 2026, whose asset and wealth management business is a useful comparison.

Tradune shows what you actually hold across every account, and whether a position has beaten a plain index fund since you bought it. Educational analysis, not investment advice.