Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Short Interest Down 6.6% in January

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 19,480,000 shares, a drop of 6.6% from the January 15th total of 20,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,530,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 12.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blackstone Mortgage Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 425,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,399,000 after acquiring an additional 50,000 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. acquired a new position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 4th quarter valued at $477,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the 4th quarter worth $4,862,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 44.4% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 52,316 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 16,091 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 813,466 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $14,162,000 after purchasing an additional 17,570 shares during the period. 64.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BXMT shares. Wolfe Research raised Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $17.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $19.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone Mortgage Trust presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.29.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Performance

BXMT stock traded up $0.47 on Monday, reaching $20.34. The company had a trading volume of 3,296,475 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,445,799. The company’s fifty day moving average is $18.27 and its 200 day moving average is $18.39. The company has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.64 and a beta of 1.50. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 1 year low of $16.53 and a 1 year high of $20.73.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.87) by $1.26. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a positive return on equity of 9.35% and a negative net margin of 12.91%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.24%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently -135.25%.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc, a real estate finance company, originates senior loans collateralized by commercial properties in North America, Europe, and Australia. The company originates and acquires senior floating rate mortgage loans that are secured by a first-priority mortgage on commercial real estate assets.