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

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $19.20.

BXMT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings lowered Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Up 1.7%

Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock opened at $14.04 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $15.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.73. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 156.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 0.90. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 52 week low of $13.61 and a 52 week high of $20.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.10). Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a return on equity of 7.72% and a net margin of 1.57%.The business had revenue of $158.06 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.32 million. Research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 0.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a $0.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.4%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is presently 2,088.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Henry N. Nassau acquired 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $14.34 per share, with a total value of $143,400.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 218,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,133,619.82. This trade represents a 4.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Fernando Austin Pena sold 2,398 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.48, for a total transaction of $41,917.04. Following the sale, the president directly owned 74,569 shares in the company, valued at $1,303,466.12. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. Insiders sold 5,420 shares of company stock valued at $95,233 over the last three months. 1.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 21.1% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 133,453 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $2,266,000 after acquiring an additional 23,261 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 2nd quarter worth about $349,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 1,551.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,267,231 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $55,380,000 after purchasing an additional 3,069,406 shares during the period. Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the second quarter worth approximately $192,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the second quarter worth approximately $84,000. 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.