Blackstone Mortgage Trust Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BXMT)

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 67,797 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 8,809% compared to the average daily volume of 761 call options.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of BXMT stock traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $19.76. 1,020,807 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,423,210. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.16. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 12-month low of $16.51 and a 12-month high of $21.24. The stock has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86 and a beta of 1.08.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $132.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $103.56 million. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a return on equity of 4.06% and a net margin of 7.53%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.5%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 303.23%.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 24.4% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,082,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $56,740,000 after acquiring an additional 603,588 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the second quarter worth about $35,101,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the second quarter worth about $34,608,000. Bamco Inc. NY grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,696,314 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $31,229,000 after purchasing an additional 101,701 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 1,127,653 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,760,000 after purchasing an additional 48,767 shares during the period. 64.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BXMT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $21.00 in a research report on Monday, November 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.33.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Company Profile

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc (NYSE: BXMT) is a publicly traded real estate finance company that originates, acquires and manages commercial mortgage loans and other CRE debt investments. As an externally managed real estate investment trust (REIT), it seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through the deployment of senior floating-rate and fixed-rate loans backed by income-producing properties.

The firm’s core business activities span the origination of senior mortgage loans, the acquisition of loan portfolios and other real estate debt instruments, and the active management of those investments.