Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) CEO Buys $1,035,000.00 in Stock

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) CEO Timothy Johnson acquired 90,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.50 per share, for a total transaction of $1,035,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 617,900 shares in the company, valued at $7,105,850. This represents a 17.05% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Down 1.6%

BXMT traded down $0.19 during trading on Thursday, hitting $11.44. 3,348,394 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,012,371. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.13, a PEG ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.59. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 12-month low of $10.11 and a 12-month high of $20.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.14. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a positive return on equity of 9.17% and a negative net margin of 48.18%. The firm had revenue of $141.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $148.60 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 31st will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This is a decrease from Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 31st. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.5%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -84.30%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the second quarter worth $18,109,000. Dupree Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 85.1% in the 3rd quarter. Dupree Financial Group LLC now owns 596,835 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,834,000 after acquiring an additional 274,361 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 758.3% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 185,148 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,546,000 after purchasing an additional 163,577 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 21.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,297,062 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $24,839,000 after purchasing an additional 233,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 75.7% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 238,916 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,575,000 after purchasing an additional 102,904 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BXMT. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Blackstone Mortgage Trust has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.00.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust that originates and manages senior loans secured by commercial properties. The company primarily provides floating-rate mortgage financing to owners and sponsors of institutional-quality real estate, earning income from interest and other fees associated with its lending activities.

Its loan portfolio has historically included properties across sectors such as office, multifamily, hotel, industrial, retail and life sciences.