Blackstone’s Earnings Beat Estimates. Assets Under Management Are Rising.

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Blackstone, the private-equity giant, reported higher distributable earnings than expected and came closer to reaching its goal of having $1 trillion under management.

For the first quarter, which ended in March, distributable earnings, or the cash

Blackstone

(ticker: BX) uses to pay shareholders, was $1.9 billion, or $1.55 a share. Analysts tracked by FactSet expected distributable earnings of $1.06 per share.

Blackstone’s assets under management increased to $915.5 billion, up 41% from a year earlier, driven by a net inflow of $50 billion of funds in the quarter. Analysts had expected $909.7 billion. In 2018, the firm predicted it would reach $1 trillion of AUM in eight years, but said this January that it now expects to achieve that this year.

Its private-equity portfolio appreciated by 2.8% in the quarter, handily beating the

S&P 500,
which fell almost 5% in the same period. The Opportunistic and Core+ real estate funds grew by 10.3% and 7.9%, respectively, while the BPS Composite hedge fund gained 1.2%.

The investment firm’s quarterly net income of $1.22 billion easily beat analysts’ estimates of $798.1 million, although it came in lower than the $1.75 billion reported for the first quarter of 2021.

Blackstone’s stock (ticker: BX) was down about 1% at $119.12 in morning trading, while the S&P 500 was 0.8% higher. Last year, Blackstone’s stock gained almost 100%, while the S&P 500 was up 27%.

Write to Karishma Vanjani at [email protected]