Blackstone (BX) Reports Q1 Earnings: It’s A Beat

Shares of The Blackstone Group L.P. (BX) rallied $1.48 to $42.50 in premarket trading after the firm released its earnings results on Thursday. The investment manager reported non-GAAP Q1’15 EPS of $1.37 per share vs. $1.04 consensus on $2.51 billion in revenue, up 66.3% from a year ago.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement, “Blackstone again broke all of our asset and earnings records in the first quarter. Economic Net Income doubled from the prior year, while Distributable Earnings rose nearly 160%. Realization activity continued to accelerate while, at the same time, we’ve been raising and investing funds at an unprecedented rate, creating the basis for future value. Our limited partners entrusted us with $30 billion of new capital in the quarter and $77 billion over the last twelve months, shattering our own record for the alternative asset management industry, and driving our Total Assets Under Management to $310 billion [driven by $77.2 billion from gross inflows and $24 billion from consistently strong fund appreciation], up 14% year over year.”

Blackstone also said that it was currently raising funds for its 7th global private equity fund, with the first close expected in Q2/15.

On valuation measures, Blackstone Group L.P. shares, which currently have an average 3-month trading volume of 3.96 million shares, trade at a trailing-12 P/E of 15.90, a forward P/E of 10.79 and a P/E to growth ratio of (6.15). The median Wall Street price target on the name is $45.00 with a high target of $53.00. Currently ticker boasts 15 ‘Buy’ endorsements, compared to 1 ’Hold’ and no ‘Sell’.

Profitability-wise, BX has a t-12 profit and operating margin of 21.52% and 49.28%, respectively. The $24.71 billion market cap company currently prints a one year return of about 47% and a year-to-date return of around 24%.

The chart below shows where the equity has traded over the last 52 weeks.

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