This 4.5%-Yielding Dividend Stock Has $50 Billion to Continue its Real Estate Buying Binge

Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) has made several headline-grabbing real estate acquisitions over the past year. The leading alternative asset manager has purchased billions of dollars in real estate by taking several real estate investment trusts (REITs) private.

The company's real estate shopping spree is far from over. Blackstone's management noted on its second-quarter conference call that they have an enormous amount of dry powder to continue acquiring real estate. Here's a closer look at why the leader in real estate investing expects to continue growing its massive real estate portfolio.

Blackstone ended the second quarter with $320 billion of real estate assets under management, up 54% from the year-ago period. Investors poured $48.9 billion into Blackstone's real estate funds during the quarter and $123.7 billion over the last 12 months. The big driver in the quarter was the launch of its 10th global opportunistic fund, which raised $24.4 billion. Blackstone's non-traded REIT, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), also continued to attract investor capital, raising $6.6 billion in the quarter, with another $1.4 billion of subscriptions coming right after the period ended.

Source Fool.com