Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Shares Acquired by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,079 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 2,052 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.05% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust worth $1,603,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 4.1% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 69,618 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,359,000 after purchasing an additional 2,766 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. GFS Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 9,068.6% during the 3rd quarter. GFS Advisors LLC now owns 458,430 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,715,000 after buying an additional 453,430 shares in the last quarter. Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Glassy Mountain Advisors Inc. now owns 61,445 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,168,000 after buying an additional 1,534 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 4.9% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 823,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $15,737,000 after acquiring an additional 38,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BXMT. Wolfe Research upgraded Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $19.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $19.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $17.50 to $20.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.71.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of BXMT opened at $20.77 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.75 and a beta of 1.50. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.53 and a 52-week high of $21.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $18.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.60.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last issued its earnings results 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 negative net margin of 11.54% and a positive return on equity of 8.62%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 1.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.05%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is currently -160.68%.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Profile

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.