Shares of Blackstone rose 1.7 percent to $31.14 at 9:58 a.m. in New York, extending gains this year to 16 percent.

Blackstone, led by Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman, sold $3.8 billion of private equity holdings during the quarter, including part of its stakes in food-service distributor Performance Food Group Co. and cement maker Summit Materials Inc. Its real estate business, which oversees $102 billion, disposed of $3.5 billion in assets, including the DoubleTree hotel in London, the Burlington hotel in Dublin and the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Hilton, Blackstone’s biggest public holding, jumped 19 percent during the quarter. The firm has been paring its Hilton stake through share sales and through an agreement to sell about $6.5 billion of the stock to China’s HNA Group.

Those private equity and real estate sales helped fuel $691.8 million of distributable earnings, which reflect cash profits on asset disposals and fund management fees, compared with $878 million a year earlier. Blackstone said it will pay stockholders a dividend of 47 cents a share on Feb. 13. 

Eoin Treacy's view

Private equity firms were among the greatest beneficiaries of low interest rates and abundant liquidity, which allowed them to raise cash for acquisitions at very low levels. However the collapse in oil prices coupled with Fed tapering contributed to weak performance in many publicly traded funds. The potential for an uptick in economic activity resulting from the expectation that the new US administration will be more business friendly has contributed to a better performance recently. 

Blackstone completed a yearlong base formation in November. 

Apollo Global Management has held a progression of higher reaction lows since early 2016.

KKR has a similar pattern. 

Carlyle Group is now trading back above the 2000day MA for the first time since early 2015. 

Icahn Enterprises is consolidating above the trend mean for the first time since 2014.