Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) Stock Crosses Below Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT)’s share price crossed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $17.58 and traded as low as $13.86. Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares last traded at $13.8850, with a volume of 1,588,857 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on BXMT shares. Raymond James Financial lowered Blackstone Mortgage Trust from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $16.00 target price (down from $20.00) on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.20.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 150.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.32 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.50.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by ($0.10). Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 1.57% and a return on equity of 7.72%. The firm had revenue of $158.06 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $157.32 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.9%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 2,088.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, Director Henry Nassau purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $14.34 per share, for a total transaction of $143,400.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 218,523 shares in the company, valued at $3,133,619.82. The trade was a 4.80% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, President Fernando Pena sold 1,670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.07, for a total transaction of $28,506.90. Following the transaction, the president directly owned 72,899 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,244,385.93. The trade was a 2.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 5,420 shares of company stock worth $95,233 over the last three months. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blackstone Mortgage Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 1,551.6% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,267,231 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $55,380,000 after buying an additional 3,069,406 shares during the period. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 24.4% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,082,005 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $56,740,000 after buying an additional 603,588 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 2,000,621 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $38,272,000 after buying an additional 304,307 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in the fourth quarter valued at about $38,239,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust by 19.7% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,607,185 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,745,000 after acquiring an additional 264,256 shares during the last quarter. 64.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.