Roman Tiraspolsky
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) stock fell 4.4% in Thursday premarket trading after the private equity firm posted weaker-than-expected Q3 earnings as it navigated markets adjusting to a higher interest rate environment.
Among its investment strategies, private equity infrastructure delivered the best returns, while opportunistic real estate posted the weakest.
Total assets under management of $1.01T, missing the Visible Alpha consensus of $1.02T, climbed from $1.00T at June 30, 2023. Fee-earning AUM of $734.5B vs. $731.B at the end of Q2.
Q3 distributable EPS of $0.94, vs. the $1.02 consensus, fell from $0.93 in Q2 and $1.06 in Q3 2022.
Q3 fee-related earnings of $1.12B, or $0.92 per share, dropped from $1.14B, or $0.94 per share, in the previous quarter and $1.18B, or $0.98 per share, a year ago.
“Blackstone delivered resilient third-quarter results despite challenging markets,” said Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
Total net management and advisory fees were $1.65B, slipping from $1.70B in Q2, but up from $1.61B in Q3 2022.
Total expenses were $1.37B, compared with $1.48B in the previous quarter and $961M a year ago.
Q3 inflows amounted to $25.3B compared with $30.1B of inflows in the prior quarter.
Undrawn capital for investment, or dry powder, increased to $200.6B from $194.5B at the end of Q2 2023.
During the quarter, Blackstone (BX) deployed $12.4B in capital and recorded realizations of $14.8B.
Blackstone’s (BX) investment performance by segment (appreciation/gross returns):
- Real Estate — Opportunistic -2.0%; Core +0.3%.
- Private Equity — Corporate Private Equity +2.4%; Tactical Opportunities +0.1%; Secondaries +0.4%; Infrastructure +11.0%;
- Hedge Fund Solutions — +2.5%;
- Credit & Insurance — Private Credit +4.6%; Liquid Credit +3.3%.
Conference call at 9:00 AM ET.
Earlier, Blackstone (BX) non-GAAP EPS of $0.94 misses by $0.08, revenue of $2.32B misses by $260M
