Blackrock rewards shareholders with bumper dividend after record-breaking year
US investment behemoth Blackrock today posted record annual results, raking in $367bn (£269bn) during 2017.
Revenues grew by 12 per cent, with earnings per share rising by 59 per cent.
Blackrock returned $2.8bn to shareholders last year and its board signed off on a 15 per cent dividend hike to $2.88 per share.
“Blackrock’s record 2017 results reflect the long-term investments we’ve consistently made in our business to better serve clients,” said Blackrock, chairman and chief executive Laurence D. Fink, adding:
$367bn of total net inflows for the year were the strongest flows in Blackrock’s history and included $103bn in the fourth quarter.
Read more: BlackRock approaching $6 trillion as passive funds boost inflows
The most popular of Blackrock’s offerings was its iShares exchange-traded funds (ETF) offering, with $245bn of inflows.
Finked added: “An increasingly diverse set of institutional and retail clients are using ETFs for asset allocation and alpha generation. Investors are using both equity and fixed income ETFs in their portfolios for core and precision exposures and as financial instruments.”
Read more: BlackRock profits soar 31 per cent as investors pile into passives