Short Interest in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) Increases By 19.0%

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) saw a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 10,743,624 shares, an increase of 19.0% from the March 15th total of 9,030,522 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,769,650 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days. Approximately 4.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Price Performance

Shares of BXSL stock traded up $0.13 on Friday, reaching $24.67. 2,674,009 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,535,631. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a one year low of $22.47 and a one year high of $32.81. The company has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a 50-day moving average of $24.11 and a 200-day moving average of $25.73.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.01. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 39.69% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The business had revenue of $196.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $359.59 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.5%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 125.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,820,346 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,476,000 after acquiring an additional 832,179 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 112.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,149,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $135,597,000 after buying an additional 2,721,843 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 112.5% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,731,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $124,576,000 after buying an additional 2,504,617 shares during the last quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc increased its stake in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc now owns 3,359,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,305,000 after buying an additional 216,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc increased its stake in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 2,217,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,377,000 after buying an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 36.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BXSL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $27.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $27.50 to $24.75 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.28.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE: BXSL) is a closed-end management investment company sponsored by Blackstone Credit, the credit-oriented business of Blackstone Inc Launched in May 2020, BXSL seeks to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns primarily through current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation. The fund raises capital from institutional and retail investors and deploys it into a diversified portfolio of senior secured loans and other credit instruments.

The fund’s principal investment focus is on first-lien senior secured loans and unitranche debt extended to middle-market companies across North America.