BX Blackstone Inc

Blackstone Group LP said Thursday its first-quarter profit tumbled as its selling of older investments waned during another period of market volatility.

The New York private-equity firm reported earnings of $150 million, or 23 cents a share, down from $629.4 million, or $1 a share, a year earlier.

Blackstone's first-quarter economic net income fell to $371 million, or 31 cents a share, from $1.62 billion, or $1.37 a share, a year earlier. The result missed Wall Street's 37-cent estimate, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts.

Economic net income includes unrealized gains as well as cash earnings.

The profit measure fell by more than 50% at all four of Blackstone's business lines. In private equity, it realized some $2.1 billion by selling down investments, versus $3.3 billion in the year-earlier period. Its credit division's results were stung by the slump in energy prices.

Blackstone reported assets under management of $343.71 billion, up from $310.45 billion a year earlier and $336.38 billion at the end of the year.

Its distributable earnings—the portion of profits in which shareholders would get a slice—were $388 million in the first quarter, compared with the prior-year period's $1.24 billion.

Blackstone said it would pay a dividend of 28 cents for the quarter, versus 89 cents for the prior-year period.

Its shares closed up 0.2% at $29.46 Wednesday, off a 2-1/2-year closing low of $23.02 on Feb. 11.

Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 21, 2016 07:55 ET (11:55 GMT)

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