BlackRock Solidly in the Black

Posted Jan 27th 2010 1:00PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Earnings Reports

One of few major U.S. financial firms to avoid the fallout from the global meltdown is BlackRock (BLK). More importantly, the firm did not get the unwanted PR attention that Goldman (GS) received.

And the success continues for BlackRock. In its latest quarterly report, the company generated earnings of $256 million, or $1.62 per share. This compares to $52 million, or $0.39 per share in the year earlier.

In fact, revenues spiked 45% to $1.54 billion. Then again, BlackRock was able to make a $13.5 billion purchase of Global Investors, a major player in the exchange-traded funds market. Because of the deal, BlackRock now has assets under management of a whopping $3.3 trillion and is the number one bond manager. Actually, the asset amount is twice as much as the year-earlier period.

So far, it looks like the integration efforts are running smoothly. Although, it's still early. It will likely take two years to finish the process.

So where does BlackRock go from here? Yes, the firm wants to get even bigger. And this means moving more aggressively into global markets, such as Latin America and Asia.

Tom Taulli advises on business tax preparation and resolving tax problems. He is also the author of a variety of books, including The Complete M&A Handbook. His website is at Taulli.com.

Tags: BlackRock, BLK, earnings, Global Investors, Goldman Sachs, GS, inthenews