Retail channels are coming to dominate the business of the giant asset manager built by Larry Fink.

That's one trend highlighted by Jack Hough in a recent Barron's deep dive into BlackRock [profile]. The publication notes that, while iShares [profile] and other retail businesses only account for about one-third of BlackRock's nearly $5 trillion in AUM, those same businesses account for two-thirds of BlackRock's fees.

"Operating margins have been trending higher in recent years as iShares has outgrown other parts of the business," Barron's writes, noting that organic AUM growth was four percent last quarter, yet iShares AUM rose 11 percent.

The long piece offers a fundsters a glimpse at how Wall Street sees and evaluates mutual fund shops and other asset managers. It also offers rosy predictions about BlackRock's future, highlighting analysts' predictions that BlackRock will have a 2015 operating margin of more than 41 percent thanks to its "magnificent scalability." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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