Blackstone Q3 Earnings Fall, Below View

(RTTNews) - Private equity firm, Blackstone Inc. (BX) Thursday reported distributable earnings of $1.212 billion or $0.94 per share for the third quarter, lower than $1.375 billion or $1.06 per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Earnings also missed the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson-Reuters of $1.01 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net profit, however, increased to $551.99 million or $0.73 per share from $2.29 million or breakeven per share in the same quarter a year ago, primarily due to gains from performance allocations as well as principal investments. The consensus estimate was for $2.51 billion.

Performance allocations were $390.49 million in the latest quarter compared with a loss of $45.75 million last year. Principal investments were $163.65 million versus loss f $876.47 million in the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter increased to $2.541 billion from $1.058 billion last year

Total Assets Under Management (AUM) increased 6% year-over-year to $1,007.4 billion.

Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of $0.80 per share, to be paid on November 6, to shareholders on record on October 30.