Insider Buying: Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Director Acquires 57,050 Shares of Stock

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Director Timothy Steven Johnson purchased 57,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.50 per share, with a total value of $998,375.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 423,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,406,892.50. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Price Performance

Shares of BXMT remained flat at $17.19 during mid-day trading on Tuesday. The stock had a trading volume of 2,113,168 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,155,074. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.73. The company has a market cap of $2.98 billion, a PE ratio of 581.33 and a beta of 1.49. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.53 and a 52 week high of $23.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $466.15 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $131.87 million. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a positive return on equity of 10.16% and a negative net margin of 7.98%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.94%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is 6,266.67%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BXMT shares. UBS Group decreased their price target on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $21.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price target on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Friday, July 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $19.58.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the fourth quarter valued at $38,747,000. Blackstone Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 7,948,955 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $169,074,000 after buying an additional 686,881 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 82.6% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,169,503 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $24,875,000 after buying an additional 528,950 shares in the last quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the fourth quarter valued at $6,355,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 35.9% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,096,198 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $23,316,000 after buying an additional 289,643 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Company Profile

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc, a real estate finance company, originates senior loans collateralized by commercial properties in North America, Europe, and Australia. The company originates and acquires senior floating rate mortgage loans that are secured by a first-priority mortgage on commercial real estate assets.