Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (BXSL) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 31st

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.77 per share on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 9.35%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has raised its dividend by an average of 79.8% annually over the last three years. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a dividend payout ratio of 98.7% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities research analysts expect Blackstone Secured Lending Fund to earn $3.30 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.3%.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE BXSL opened at $32.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.15 and a beta of 0.43. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a 52 week low of $27.76 and a 52 week high of $34.64. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.91.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $353.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $346.52 million. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a return on equity of 13.15% and a net margin of 53.91%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on BXSL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $33.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.50 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.79.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Company Profile

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund is business development company and a Delaware statutory trust formed on March 26, 2018, and structured as an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end investment Fund. On October 26, 2018, the fund elected to be regulated as a business development company (BDC) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the 1940 Act).