By Miriam Gottfried

Blackstone Group Inc. reported higher earnings for the fourth quarter as the value of its private-equity portfolio climbed with the broader market.

The buyout giant posted net income of $748.9 million, or $1.07 a share, for the quarter. That compares with a profit of $483.1 million, or 71 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2019, it said Wednesday.

The value of Blackstone's private-equity portfolio climbed by 10.6% in the latest period as the S&P 500 rose 11.7%.

Blackstone's investment portfolio has been buoyed in recent quarters by its exposure to areas of the economy that have fared relatively well during the coronavirus pandemic, including logistics, enterprise software, digital payments and life sciences.

The firm sees opportunity in sectors that have been temporarily beaten down by the virus, but which should recover quickly once vaccines have been widely administered, such as location-based entertainment and transportation infrastructure, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said in an interview.

"I do think the second half of the year is going to look and feel very different from where we are today," Mr. Gray said. "The big challenge for investors is thinking about the post-vaccine world. We could see a huge surge in consumer demand. Does that lead to a huge surge in inflation and commodity prices?"

Blackstone's distributable earnings, or the amount of cash that could be returned to shareholders, came in at a record $1.46 billion, or $1.13 a share, in the fourth quarter. That compares with $914 million, or 72 cents per share, a year earlier.

The private-equity giant said it would pay a dividend of 96 cents a share for the quarter, versus 61 cents a year earlier.

Blackstone's fee-related earnings climbed 36% year over year to $749.9 million, also a record, as the firm continued to expand into new products targeting a broader range of investors.

The firm, with more than $600 billion of assets under management, took advantage of rising markets to exit $20.9 billion worth of investments during the quarter. But the biggest chunk of that came from recapitalizing its investment in BioMed Realty and selling the portfolio of life-sciences buildings to another one of its funds for $14.6 billion.

It also sold insurance company Rothesay Life PLC to Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Ptd. Ltd. and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. and unloaded shares of Vivint Solar Inc., which merged in October with fellow solar-energy provider Sunrun Inc.

On Tuesday, Allstate Corp. said Blackstone was buying its life- and fixed-annuities business for $2.8 billion. As part of the deal, Blackstone will be taking over management of the unit's $28 billion in assets, bringing its total insurance assets to nearly $100 billion.

Blackstone raised $32.3 billion during the quarter, bringing total assets under management to roughly $619 billion, up from about $584 billion at the end of the third quarter and $571 billion a year earlier. Blackstone has set a goal of reaching $1 trillion in assets by 2026.

So-called perpetual capital, which generates a steady stream of locked-in fees because it doesn't need to be returned to investors as quickly, reached $134.9 billion, up 30% over the fourth quarter of 2019.

Write to Miriam Gottfried at Miriam.Gottfried@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-27-21 0709ET