The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) released its third quarter earnings report this morning, posting economic net income of 66 cents or $758 million, an 18% increase. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 71 cents per share on $1.74 billion in revenue.
Distributable earnings more than doubled to 53 cents per share.
Breaking down Blackstone’s earnings report
Blackstone funds created $4.3 billion worth of value during the quarter, and fund activity generated $1.7 billion in realized performance fees so far this year. GAAP net income was $251 million, while total assets under management hit a new record of $284 billion, a 15% year over year increase even though the firm returned $53.2 billion in capital to shareholders over the last 12 months. The firm reported $13.1 billion in gross inflows for the third quarter.
“I am pleased with our third quarter results, which marked a record third quarter and year-to-date period for both economic net income and distributable earnings,” said Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman in a statement. “Strong investment performance continued to attract significant capital inflows, with total capital raised of $13 billion in the quarter and $55 billion over the past year, also a record, bringing total assets under management to $284 billion, up 15% year-over-year.”
Breaking down Blackstone’s earnings report
Blackstone reported recorded total revenues of $1.8 billion and economic income of $1.1 billion in its Private Equity segment. Under Real Estate, the firm set records in total revenue and economic income again, as they were $2.1 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, for the segment in the third quarter.
The firm’s Hedge Fund Solutions saw an 8% increase in total revenue for the quarter, which moved to $158 million. Economic income for the segment rose 10% to $84 million.
Blackstone’s Credit segment reported $228 million in total revenues. The firm also reported Fee-Earnings Assets Under Management of $214.8 billion.
Last week, Blackstone announced plans for a tax-free spinoff of its financial advisory business. This morning the firm also declared a quarterly dividend of 44 cents.
