Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.14 EPS

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) issued its earnings results on Thursday. 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, FiscalAI reports. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 1.57% and a return on equity of 7.72%. The business had revenue of $141.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $148.60 million.

Here are the key takeaways from Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s conference call:

• Book value fell 12% to $17.06 per share, driven primarily by $1.59 per share of higher CECL reserves, impairments to owned real estate, and valuation adjustments on loans held for sale. The company reported a GAAP loss of $1.95 per share.
• Management reduced the quarterly dividend from $0.47 to $0.30 per share, citing expected earnings pressure from portfolio runoff, impaired loans, and lower-yielding owned real estate, although it expects to cover the new dividend through 2027.
• BXMT sold nearly $1 billion of loans at an average price of approximately $0.93 on the dollar and collected $2.3 billion of repayments, reducing its watchlist by nearly 60% to the lowest level since 2019. Management believes most legacy office-related credit deterioration is now reflected in book value.
• The company reported $1.3 billion of liquidity, with 89% of debt represented by non-mark-to-market borrowings and no corporate debt maturities after largely pre-funding its 2027 obligations until 2029. It also has $110 million of remaining share-repurchase authorization and bought back $36 million of stock during the quarter.
• BXMT is increasing portfolio diversification, with post-2023 loans and newer net lease, bank loan, and homebuilder finance strategies representing a larger share of investments. These newer strategies now comprise nearly 10% of the portfolio, while average investment size has declined to $18 million from more than $130 million several years ago.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Performance

Shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $10.97. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,907,204 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,915,245. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.79. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a one year low of $10.11 and a one year high of $20.67. The stock has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 121.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 17.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 30th. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio is 2,088.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial cut Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on 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 issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.60.

Insider Activity at Blackstone Mortgage Trust

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, Director Henry Nassau acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $14.34 per share, with a total value of $143,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 218,523 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,133,619.82. This represents a 4.80% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,716 shares of company stock valued at $46,815. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Company Profile

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.