Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) President Fernando Austin Pena Sells 3,131 Shares of Stock

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) President Fernando Austin Pena sold 3,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.24, for a total value of $60,240.44. Following the sale, the president owned 78,633 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,898.92. The trade was a 3.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Up 1.7%

Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $19.46. The stock had a trading volume of 1,640,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,321,281. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a PE ratio of 31.39 and a beta of 1.08. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.51 and a 12 month high of $21.24.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $132.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $103.56 million. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 4.06%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.7%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 303.23%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BXMT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, November 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.33.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 27.0% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 27,179 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $544,000 after acquiring an additional 5,773 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 655,908 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $13,118,000 after buying an additional 81,243 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 286,299 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,726,000 after buying an additional 4,964 shares during the period. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 18.7% in the first quarter. Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. now owns 365,164 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $7,303,000 after buying an additional 57,549 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 45.5% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,715 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

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.