Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.14 EPS

Key Points

• BXMT beat quarterly earnings estimates, reporting EPS of $0.38 versus the $0.24 consensus, though revenue of $141.9 million fell short of the $148.6 million expected.
• Book value dropped 12% to $17.06 per share, while the company posted a GAAP loss of $1.95 per share and cut its quarterly dividend from $0.47 to $0.30 because of expected earnings pressure.
• Management highlighted balance-sheet and portfolio improvements, including nearly $1 billion of loan sales, $2.3 billion in repayments, a 60% reduction in the watchlist, and $1.3 billion in liquidity; shares traded around $10.97, while analysts’ consensus rating remained “Hold.”

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.14, FiscalAI reports. Blackstone Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 1.57% and a return on equity of 7.72%. The firm had revenue of $141.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $148.60 million.

Here are the key takeaways from Blackstone Mortgage Trust's conference call:

• Book value fell 12% to $17.06 per share, driven primarily by $1.59 per share of higher CECL reserves, impairments to owned real estate, and valuation adjustments on loans held for sale. The company reported a GAAP loss of $1.95 per share.
• Management reduced the quarterly dividend from $0.47 to $0.30 per share, citing expected earnings pressure from portfolio runoff, impaired loans, and lower-yielding owned real estate, although it expects to cover the new dividend through 2027.
• BXMT sold nearly $1 billion of loans at an average price of approximately $0.93 on the dollar and collected $2.3 billion of repayments, reducing its watchlist by nearly 60% to the lowest level since 2019. Management believes most legacy office-related credit deterioration is now reflected in book value.
• The company reported $1.3 billion of liquidity, with 89% of debt represented by non-mark-to-market borrowings and no corporate debt maturities after largely pre-funding its 2027 obligations until 2029. It also has $110 million of remaining share-repurchase authorization and bought back $36 million of stock during the quarter.
• BXMT is increasing portfolio diversification, with post-2023 loans and newer net lease, bank loan, and homebuilder finance strategies representing a larger share of investments. These newer strategies now comprise nearly 10% of the portfolio, while average investment size has declined to $18 million from more than $130 million several years ago.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Trading Up 3.9%

NYSE BXMT traded up $0.41 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $10.97. 4,907,204 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,915,245. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a 1-year low of $10.11 and a 1-year high of $20.67. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.79. The company has a market cap of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 0.92.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 17.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 30th. Blackstone Mortgage Trust's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 2,088.89%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BXMT. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Blackstone Mortgage Trust from $22.00 to $18.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "sell (d)" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Citigroup reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $18.60.

Insider Activity

In other Blackstone Mortgage Trust news, Director Henry Nassau bought 10,000 shares of Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $14.34 per share, for a total transaction of $143,400.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 218,523 shares in the company, valued at $3,133,619.82. This represents a 4.80% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,716 shares of company stock valued at $46,815. Corporate insiders own 1.18% of the company's stock.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Company Profile

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust that originates and manages senior loans secured by commercial properties. The company primarily provides floating-rate mortgage financing to owners and sponsors of institutional-quality real estate, earning income from interest and other fees associated with its lending activities.

Its loan portfolio has historically included properties across sectors such as office, multifamily, hotel, industrial, retail and life sciences.

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