For example, BlackRock's own Emerging Markets Long Short Equity Fund, run by the scientific active equity team, struggled in the first half of 2014 partially because it had short positions in Brazilian stocks when the country's market rallied after the presidential elections.

The fund underperformed its benchmark, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S Treasury Bill 3 Month Index, by 1.2 percent, in the first half of 2014, according to Morningstar.

Still, with fixed income investments likely to lose favor with investors in coming months if the Federal Reserve, as expected, raises interest rates, it is increasingly important for bond-heavy BlackRock's active equity funds to shine, analysts say.

That's particularly true because the firm's active equity business has the potential to generate bigger profits for the firm. Currently, it makes up about 6 percent of the firm's assets under management, but it delivered 15 percent of its revenue in the second quarter.

Last quarter, the average fee BlackRock charged institutional clients for its active equity strategies is 0.60 percent, compared to 0.05 percent for the passive strategies for which it is better known, according to Mac Sykes, an analyst at Gabelli.

And while performance has improved over the past year, only  22 percent of the group's fundamental active equity mutual funds returned among the top quartile of their peers for the 12 months, up from 8 percent for the past five years, according to Morningstar.

For analysts, the fundamental active equity performance is the only thing holding back BlackRock's stock from going even higher. The stock trades at about $335 a share.

"For me the next big leg up in their stock is if they can improve active equity," said Luke Montgomery, a Sanford Bernstein analyst. "They have industry leading flows, but the story so far has been about their ETFs and fixed income business."

Nowcasting

One goal within the next 12 months for BlackRock is "nowcasting" - using data and satellite imagery that could show how real-time forces are affecting portfolios, such as how many cars are in the parking lots of Wal-Mart Stores across the country.