BX Blackstone Inc

Carlyle Group LP's first-quarter profit slid amid a challenging quarter for buyout firms, but it reported a widely tracked bottom-line metric that beat analysts' expectations.

The Washington, D.C., private-equity firm on Wednesday reported a profit of $8 million, or a penny a share, down from $39.5 million, or 54 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

Carlyle's economic net income was $88.5 million, or 18 cents a share, down from $272.7 million a year earlier. The latest result beat the 12-cent average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The profit metric includes cash earnings as well as changes in the value of unrealized investments.

Private-equity firms struggled out of the gate this year as whipsaw markets kept a lid on the value of their holdings and offered little chance to sell portfolio companies' shares. Blackstone Group LP's first-quarter profit fell 76% while KKR & Co. swung to a loss from a year-earlier profit.

Carlyle's buyout fund holdings appreciated 1% during the period. Blackstone's private-equity holdings appreciated 1.7% while KKR's declined 0.9%, the firms said in recent days.

Carlyle's distributable earnings, the portion of profits that can be paid to shareholders, fell to $129 million, or 35 cents a share, from $148 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier. Carlyle said it would pay a 26-cent dividend, versus 33 cents a year earlier.

The firm's assets under management fell to $178.1 billion from $192.7 billion a year earlier and $182.6 billion at the end of 2015.

The firm's shares have risen 12% year-to-date, closing Tuesday at $17.53.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 07:35 ET (11:35 GMT)

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