Stock Fund Withdrawals

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 14 percent during the three months that ended Sept. 30, its biggest quarterly drop since the end of 2008. The benchmark equity index fell to a low for the period of 1,119.46 on Aug. 8 after S&P cut the U.S. long-term debt rating.

Robert Lee, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in New York, cut his average earnings estimate for asset-management firms by 6 percent for the quarter as declining stock markets eroded assets and investors withdrew money from stocks amid market volatility.

"Reflecting the turmoil in equity markets, equity fund flows remained weak, driven mainly by domestic equity fund outflows," Lee wrote in an Oct. 10 note to clients.

BlackRock, which acquired Barclays Global Investors in December 2009 to add exchange-traded funds to the actively run stock and bond funds it oversees, said in July that redemptions related to its takeover of Barclays unit had come to an end.

Series Of Acquisitions

Fink, who co-founded BlackRock in 1988, has built the firm through a series of acquisitions, including the 2006 purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co.'s investment unit. BlackRock acquired the hedge fund-of-funds business of Quellos Group LLC in 2008. The company this year has expanded the alternatives division, which manages hedge funds, real estate funds and private-equity strategies.

BlackRock announced results before the start of regular U.S. trading. The shares have lost 18 percent this year, compared with the 24 percent decline in the 19-member S&P index of asset managers and custody banks.

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