Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.01, FiscalAI reports. The firm had revenue of $196.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $359.59 million. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 42.38% and a return on equity of 11.85%.

Here are the key takeaways from Blackstone Secured Lending Fund’s conference call:

• BXSL reported strong quarterly results with net investment income of $0.80 per share (11.8% annualized ROE) and a $0.77 distribution that was 104% covered, producing a 9.6% net return for the year and an 11.4% distribution yield on NAV.
• Management was highly active—funding ~$1.0B, committing ~$900M, growing the portfolio to 316 companies, and saying BXCI has over $40 billion of dry powder to deploy into direct lending opportunities.
• Portfolio credit fundamentals remain healthy, with the top ~90% of names showing ~9% EBITDA growth, >2x interest coverage, an average mark near 99, and low non-accruals (~0.6% at cost).
• Marks were concentrated in a few underperformers—most notably Medallia (now marked to 77.75) and the bottom 10% averaging a mark of 82—creating concentrated downside risk in a small subset of the portfolio.
• Management has $2.5B of liquidity, a board-approved $250M buyback program, and visibility to ~$550M of near-term repayments (with up to ~$2B possible over the year), and will opportunistically allocate between new loans, repurchases, or deleveraging.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of NYSE:BXSL traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $24.44. 1,642,972 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,310,651. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.65 billion, a PE ratio of 9.20 and a beta of 0.41. The business’s 50 day moving average is $25.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.02. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a one year low of $23.31 and a one year high of $34.17.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Walter & Keenan Wealth Management LLC IN ADV raised its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Walter & Keenan Wealth Management LLC IN ADV now owns 25,632 shares of the company’s stock worth $675,000 after acquiring an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 19,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $509,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 3.4% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 15,030 shares of the company’s stock worth $392,000 after purchasing an additional 494 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 4.6% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 12,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,000 after purchasing an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vienna Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Blackstone Secured Lending Fund by 5.5% during the third quarter. Vienna Asset Management LLC now owns 23,021 shares of the company’s stock valued at $600,000 after buying an additional 1,206 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 36.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. B. Riley Financial lowered their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $26.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $32.00 to $29.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.50 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.13.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Company Profile

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE: BXSL) is a closed-end management investment company sponsored by Blackstone Credit, the credit-oriented business of Blackstone Inc Launched in May 2020, BXSL seeks to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns primarily through current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation. The fund raises capital from institutional and retail investors and deploys it into a diversified portfolio of senior secured loans and other credit instruments.

The fund’s principal investment focus is on first-lien senior secured loans and unitranche debt extended to middle-market companies across North America.