Short Interest in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) Decreases By 54.7%

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, a drop of 54.7% from the June 30th total of 3,330,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 888,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,540,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,987,000 after buying an additional 200,109 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 13.8% in the 1st quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,085,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,819,000 after purchasing an additional 131,876 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 842,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,288,000 after purchasing an additional 187,016 shares during the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 140,837.8% in the 2nd quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 759,655 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,261,000 after purchasing an additional 759,116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 85.6% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 549,662 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,193,000 after purchasing an additional 253,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.00 to $31.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.92.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BXSL traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $30.76. 817,113 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 915,362. The company has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a PE ratio of 8.19 and a beta of 0.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $31.03 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.41. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a twelve month low of $25.83 and a twelve month high of $32.67.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.92 by ($0.05). Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 55.54% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The business had revenue of $303.96 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $305.08 million. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.01%. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.13%.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is business development company and a Delaware statutory trust formed on March 26, 2018, and structured as an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment Fund. On October 26, 2018, the fund elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act).