Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) Director Henry Nassau Buys 10,000 Shares

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Director Henry Nassau bought 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $14.34 per share, with a total value of $143,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 218,523 shares in the company, valued at $3,133,619.82. This trade represents a 4.80% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of BXMT opened at $13.88 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.45. The firm has a market cap of $2.34 billion, a PE ratio of 154.21, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.91. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 1-year low of $13.73 and a 1-year high of $20.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $158.06 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.32 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 1.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 2,088.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BXMT has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $16.00 target price (down from $20.00) on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $19.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UBS Group AG raised its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 24.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,082,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $56,740,000 after acquiring an additional 603,588 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,000,621 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 304,307 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the fourth quarter worth $38,239,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,607,185 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,745,000 after purchasing an additional 264,256 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 25.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,354,870 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $25,919,000 after purchasing an additional 277,280 shares in the last quarter. 64.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.