NEW YORK, May 21, 2026, 18:05 (EDT)
Blue Owl Capital Inc. jumped almost 5% Thursday, leading the gains in an otherwise mildly higher day on Wall Street. Investors came back to the beaten-down alternative-asset stock, which has been facing private-credit concerns. Blue Owl traded as high as $10.23 and was last up 48.5 cents at $10.20. About 32 million shares changed hands.
Blue Owl is in the spotlight as a kind of gauge for public market appetite for private credit, which covers loans made by funds instead of banks. The alternative asset manager’s stock dropped about 50% this week, The Wall Street Journal reported, as investors questioned its private-credit positions tied to software firms. Doug Ostrover, Blue Owl’s co-founder, sold his last stake in the Washington Commanders, though the sale was not triggered by any share-backed loans or stock sales, according to the Journal.
Wall Street’s big indexes closed with small gains after a rough session. The Dow finished up 0.55%, S&P 500 rose 0.17%, and the Nasdaq added just 0.09%. Moves tracked oil, Iran news, and earnings.
Private-market peers traded in different directions, with Blue Owl moving against the group. Ares Management picked up around 1.5%, Blackstone was up about 1.5%, but Apollo Global Management slipped around 1.0%.
Blue Owl’s latest update gave bulls fresh ammo. The firm said on April 30 that assets under management hit $315 billion at March 31. It set a quarterly dividend of 23 cents per Class A share, payable May 27. Co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz said the quarter showed “stability” in their capital base along with growth driven by fundraising and deployment. Blue Owl Capital
Blue Owl’s stock has moved on more than just the numbers. After Q1, Reuters said retail private-credit funds recorded historic outflows tied to worries about lending standards and software loan exposure. CFO Alan Kirshenbaum told investors Blue Owl was reducing its software risk and wasn’t seeing any big negative moves in the portfolios. TD Cowen analysts said the results pointed to limited contagion outside of higher redemptions from direct lending.
The catch is if redemption requests keep up or if software borrowers face more stress, Blue Owl could end up spending more time and liquidity on handling withdrawals instead of making new loans. That might mean slower fee growth, especially for wealth products, where individual investors have been less patient than institutional ones.
Blue Owl remains in a divided setup on analyst screens, not a broken one. Benzinga’s analyst tracker had a “Buy” consensus rating and a $17.30 average target. TD Cowen’s most recent move was a $14 target on May 18. Shares traded at $10.17 after hours, ticking down from the close. Benzinga
Blue Owl is looking to expand outside direct lending. The firm on May 12 picked Deva Mishra to run its insurance-solutions platform, setting sights on insurers and long-term capital. “The opportunity now is to further scale the insurance solutions platform,” Mishra said in a statement. Blue Owl Capital
Thursday’s move gives Blue Owl a bit of a buffer, but it’s not a total recovery. The main thing for investors is whether the stock looks oversold after its recent slide, or whether there’s more downside as concerns about private-credit outflows linger.
