Blackstone Sold $7.3B Of Real Estate In Q3, Posts 48% Profit Jump

Blackstone reported a hefty increase in profits year-over-year during its third-quarter earnings call after unloading $7.3B in commercial real estate and spending $3.6B on the same.

The firm's distributable earnings in the third quarter rose to $1.9B, a roughly 48% increase year-over-year and up about 20% from $1.6B in Q2, according to its earnings report.

Those earnings put Blackstone at $1.52 per share in the quarter, beating analyst expectations of $1.23 per share, according to Reuters. 

However, Blackstone's third-quarter revenue fell to $3.09B, a hair lower than analysts’ estimates of $3.1B, according to The Wall Street Journal. Its net income was $624.9M, a decrease from $780.8M in the same period last year.  

Blackstone sold $30B of investments in the third quarter, Bloomberg reported.

The firm offloaded more real estate in Q3 compared to the previous one, when realizations were just over $5.25B. But year-over-year, the numbers are similar, with Blackstone selling $7.4B in Q3 2024.

So far this year, Blackstone has sold $16.9B in real estate, similar to the $16.7B it had sold by this time last year. 

Just over $35.9B of the quarter's inflows came from Blackstone's private credit and insurance business. Private credit has seen a boom lately, with major investment managers leading the charge to offer loans using investor cash.

But with interest rate decreases on the horizon, the ability of this arm of Blackstone's business to continue propelling the firm's profits could be in question. 

“As base rates come down and as spreads tighten, some of the very high returns that were achieved being a senior lender in private credit, that’s harder to do,” Blackstone President Jon Gray said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.

Blackstone's stock dipped on the earnings report, finishing the day at roughly $155 per share, down 2.5% from the opening bell.