Brokerages Set Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Target Price at $19.20

Shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $19.20.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BXMT. Wall Street Zen lowered Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $16.00 price objective (down from $20.00) on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Friday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In related news, President Fernando Austin Pena sold 2,398 shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.48, for a total value of $41,917.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 74,569 shares in the company, valued at $1,303,466.12. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Henry N. Nassau acquired 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $14.34 per share, with a total value of $143,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 218,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,133,619.82. This represents a 4.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 5,420 shares of company stock valued at $95,233 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,239,000. Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 1,498.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,594,613 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,696,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494,830 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the 2nd quarter worth $18,109,000. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 24.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,082,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $56,740,000 after acquiring an additional 603,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 70.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,077,590 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $19,838,000 after acquiring an additional 446,838 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Up 0.1%

BXMT opened at $14.17 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 157.44, a PEG ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 0.91. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 12-month low of $13.73 and a 12-month high of $20.67. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.37.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.10). Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 1.57% and a return on equity of 7.72%. The business had revenue of $158.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.32 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 1.21 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2,088.89%.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc (NYSE: BXMT) is a publicly traded real estate finance company that originates, acquires and manages commercial mortgage loans and other CRE debt investments. As an externally managed real estate investment trust (REIT), it seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through the deployment of senior floating-rate and fixed-rate loans backed by income-producing properties.

The firm’s core business activities span the origination of senior mortgage loans, the acquisition of loan portfolios and other real estate debt instruments, and the active management of those investments.