Critical Survey: Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT) & The Competition

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) is one of 52 public companies in the “Mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Blackstone Mortgage Trust to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	$1.36 billion	$109.57 million	-4.80
Blackstone Mortgage Trust Competitors	$544.21 million	$157.00 million	18.24

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Blackstone Mortgage Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	-48.18%	9.17%	1.56%
Blackstone Mortgage Trust Competitors	-13.79%	7.64%	1.04%

Risk & Volatility

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s peers have a beta of 1.21, indicating that their average stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 17.5%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays out -84.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” companies pay a dividend yield of 17.4% and pay out -101.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Blackstone Mortgage Trust and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	1	4	4	0	2.33
Blackstone Mortgage Trust Competitors	695	1995	2139	136	2.35

Blackstone Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus target price of $17.00, suggesting a potential upside of 58.66%. As a group, “Mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” companies have a potential upside of 53.68%. Given Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Blackstone Mortgage Trust is more favorable than its peers.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.2% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.3% of shares of all “Mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of shares of all “Mortgage Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Blackstone Mortgage Trust peers beat Blackstone Mortgage Trust on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. is a real estate investment trust focused on commercial real estate finance. The company originates and acquires commercial mortgage loans, primarily senior loans secured by income-producing properties. Its investments span major commercial real estate markets in North America, Europe and Australia. Blackstone Mortgage Trust is externally managed by an affiliate of Blackstone and draws on the firm’s real estate investment platform. The company was formerly known as Capital Trust, Inc. and adopted the Blackstone Mortgage Trust name in 2013.