Insider Selling: Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) CFO Sells 1,352 Shares

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) CFO Marcin Urbaszek sold 1,352 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.35, for a total transaction of $24,809.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 24,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $455,520.40. The trade was a 5.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Performance

Shares of BXMT traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $18.07. 3,349,110 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,459,564. The stock has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $18.82 and a 200-day moving average of $19.21. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 52 week low of $17.67 and a 52 week high of $20.67.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 30th. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is currently 308.20%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BXMT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Zacks Research cut Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings cut Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. UBS Group started coverage on Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.38.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone Mortgage Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BXMT. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,082,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $56,740,000 after purchasing an additional 603,588 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY increased its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 17.9% during the 4th quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,000,621 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,272,000 after purchasing an additional 304,307 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the 4th quarter valued at $38,239,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,607,185 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,745,000 after buying an additional 264,256 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,354,870 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $25,919,000 after buying an additional 277,280 shares during the period. 64.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.