Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.47 (NYSE:BXMT)

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 24th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.47 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.84%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has increased its dividend payment by an average of 6.4% annually over the last three years. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a payout ratio of 134.1% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Blackstone Mortgage Trust to earn $1.82 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $2.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 136.3%.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Down 11.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BXMT opened at $17.35 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.01 billion, a PE ratio of 578.17 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $17.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.94. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a twelve month low of $16.70 and a twelve month high of $23.82.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.04. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 0.24% and a return on equity of 10.72%. The company had revenue of $466.15 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $131.87 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.75 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, CEO Katharine A. Keenan sold 2,296 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.04, for a total transaction of $39,123.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 187,468 shares in the company, valued at $3,194,454.72. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Katharine A. Keenan sold 2,296 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.04, for a total transaction of $39,123.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 187,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,194,454.72. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Katharine A. Keenan sold 4,508 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.53, for a total value of $79,025.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 182,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,207,288.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 11,057 shares of company stock worth $191,141. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BXMT. JMP Securities reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $17.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price target on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Friday, July 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.07.

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.