Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.30

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 15th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 11.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 31st. This is a 36.2% decrease from Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1% per year over the last three years. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a dividend payout ratio of 104.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Blackstone Mortgage Trust to earn $1.12 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 167.9%.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Up 2.9%

Shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock traded up $0.30 on Thursday, hitting $10.86. 7,746,896 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,930,494. The company has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a PE ratio of 120.71, a PEG ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 0.92. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $12.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.79. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 52 week low of $10.11 and a 52 week high of $20.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $141.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $148.60 million. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a return on equity of 7.72% and a net margin of 1.57%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on BXMT shares. Raymond James Financial cut Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on 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. Weiss Ratings downgraded Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $16.00 to $13.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.60.

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.