Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) Stock Bumped Up to “Hold” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on BXMT. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.00.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Performance

Shares of BXMT opened at $11.15 on Friday. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a fifty-two week low of $10.11 and a fifty-two week high of $20.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.51. The company has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.90.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $141.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.60 million. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a positive return on equity of 9.17% and a negative net margin of 48.18%. Equities research analysts forecast that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 0.50 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 31st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 31st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.8%. This is a drop from Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently -84.30%.

Insider Activity at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, CEO Timothy Johnson purchased 90,000 shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.50 per share, with a total value of $1,035,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 617,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,105,850. This represents a 17.05% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Henry N. Nassau purchased 10,000 shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.43 per share, with a total value of $114,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 233,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,668,790.70. This trade represents a 4.47% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 3,716 shares of company stock worth $46,815 in the last quarter. 1.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $18,109,000. Dupree Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 85.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dupree Financial Group LLC now owns 596,835 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $6,834,000 after buying an additional 274,361 shares during the last quarter. Independent Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the first quarter worth $4,845,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 21.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,297,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $24,839,000 after buying an additional 233,357 shares during the period. Finally, GraniteShares Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the third quarter worth $2,433,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust that originates and manages senior loans secured by commercial properties. The company primarily provides floating-rate mortgage financing to owners and sponsors of institutional-quality real estate, earning income from interest and other fees associated with its lending activities.

Its loan portfolio has historically included properties across sectors such as office, multifamily, hotel, industrial, retail and life sciences.