Heavy Hitting Dividend Behemoth: Blackstone (BX)

Few investors would turn up their noses at a 3.5% dividend yield - especially when it is being delivered by one of the world’s largest and most respected asset management groups.

That is what is on offer for investors in The Blackstone Group (BX) which was founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson. The company which specializes in a variety of financial service offerings including fund management, private equity, hedge funds and real-estate offerings has in less than 25 years become one of the giants of the industry

In 2007, Blackstone (BX) listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in a $7.6 billion transaction which included a $3 billion investment by the China Investment Company (CIC). At the time, it was the largest initial public offering of a U.S. based issuer since 2002.

When the company reported second quarter earnings in July it showed that earnings had increased to $148 million for the second quarter of 2010, up from $90 million in the second quarter of 2009. Fee-earning Assets under Management (AUM) had also risen to $101.4 billion, up from $93.5 billion at the end of June 2009. Revenue came in at $552.3m, up from $403.6m.

The company’s diversified business model has continued to provide stability and growth. While adverse global securities markets performance had a negative impact on performance fees in the second quarter, they continued to see signs of improvement in the fundamentals across the portfolio, which benefited the carrying values of investments in Blackstone (BX) funds particularly in real estate. The company managed to bring in a fresh $11 billion at year end.

The company also remains well capitalized. At the end of the quarter Blackstone (BX) had $506.7 million in cash and had no borrowings outstanding against its $1.07 billion revolving credit facility.

While the outlook for investment markets remains uncertain, investors looking for a diversified player with high quality assets, a fantastic dividend yield and "heavy-hitting" capacity in financial markets can not look much further than Blackstone (BX).