Short Interest in Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Decreases By 14.7%

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,200,000 shares, a decline of 14.7% from the February 28th total of 17,810,000 shares. Approximately 8.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.5 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, CEO Katharine A. Keenan sold 2,315 shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.70, for a total transaction of $47,920.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 246,172 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,095,760.40. The trade was a 0.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,652 shares of company stock worth $116,971. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 17,812 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $339,000 after buying an additional 1,827 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 595,425 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $11,319,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the 3rd quarter valued at about $196,000. Atom Investors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust during the 3rd quarter worth about $410,000. Finally, Centiva Capital LP grew its holdings in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 405.5% during the 3rd quarter. Centiva Capital LP now owns 60,128 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $1,143,000 after purchasing an additional 79,809 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BXMT has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $18.50 to $19.50 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Wolfe Research raised Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a "peer perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $20.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $17.50 to $20.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $19.50 to $20.50 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $20.83.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Stock Down 4.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BXMT traded down $0.93 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $18.38. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,114,053 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,796,847. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.71 and a beta of 1.52. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.95. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 1 year low of $16.53 and a 1 year high of $21.24.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.87) by $1.26. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a positive return on equity of 8.62% and a negative net margin of 11.54%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.23%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. Blackstone Mortgage Trust's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -160.68%.

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.