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Blackstone (BX) Q2 earnings easily beat the Wall Street consensus on Thursday as inflows of almost $70B boosted assets under management, pushing up management and advisory fees. By investing strategy, infrastructure posted the best returns, up 7.2%, followed by its Absolute Return multi-asset strategy, up 5.8%.
Total assets under management of $1.346T at June 30, 2026, vs. the Visible Alpha consensus of $1.334T, rose from $1.304T at March 31, 2026. Fee-earning AUM increased to $961.6B from $937.6B at the end of Q1 2026.
Net inflows of $68.3B, exceeding the $54.4B Visible Alpha consensus, compared with inflows of $52.6B in the prior quarter.
Q2 distributable EPS of $1.52, topping the consensus of $1.34, increased from $1.36 in Q1 and $1.21 in last year’s Q2.
Q2 fee-related earnings of $1.78B, or $1.43 per share, beating the Visible Alpha consensus of $1.58B, rose from $1.55B, or $1.26 per share, in Q1 and $1.46B, or $1.19 per share, in Q2 2025.
Net management and advisory fees were $2.75B, up from $2.13B in the previous quarter and $1.46B a year ago.
"Our decision to lean into the artificial intelligence megatrend is leading to standout investment performance across numerous strategies and creating extraordinary opportunities for growth," said Chairman and CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman.
Still, Blackstone (BX) stock slipped 2.3% in Thursday premarket trading.
At the end of the quarter, Blackstone (BX) had undrawn capital for investment, or dry powder, of $228.1B vs. $213.3B at the end of Q1. During the quarter, the company deployed $34.2B of capital and recorded realizations of $31.8B.
Total expenses of $2.38B vs. $2.26B in Q1 and $1.93B in last year’s Q2. Compensation and benefit expenses climbed to $1.81B from $1.74B in the prior quarter and $1.42B a year ago.
Q2 investment performance by segment (appreciation/gross returns):
Real Estate
Opportunistic: +0.4%
Core+: +0.2%
Private Equity
Corporate Private Equity: +3.7%
Tactical Opportunities: +3.9%
Secondaries: +1.7%
Infrastructure: +7.2%
Credit & Insurance
Private Credit: +1.0%
Liquid Credit: +2.2%
Multi-Asset Investing
Absolute Return Composite: +5.8%
Conference call at 9:00 AM ET.
