Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE: BXMT) is a New York-based real estate finance company that originates senior loans collateralized by commercial properties in North America, Europe, and Australia. Its shares dipped 8.65% week-over-week as of close on Friday, July 26, 2024. Blackstone Mortgage Trust stock has now dropped 16% so far in the year-to-date period.
The catalyst for this drop was the release of the company’s second quarter (Q2) fiscal 2024 earnings on Wednesday, July 24. In Q2 2024, the company reported that the net loss attributable to Blackstone Mortgage Trust was $61 million. Meanwhile, second quarter earnings per share (EPS) were reported at negative $0.35, distributable EPS at $0.49, distributable EPS prior to charge-offs $0.56, and dividends paid per basic share stood at $0.62.
In the quarterly report, Blackstone announced that its board of directors authorized a share repurchase program for up to $150 million of the company’s Class A common stock. “We believe stockholder return is well served by balancing current return with optimization of book value and long-term earnings potential through our strategic capital allocation decisions,” said Blackstone CEO Katie Keenan. “We assess the dividend with the board each quarter, prudently considering a variety of factors, and our board has declared a third quarter dividend of $0.47 per share, which we believe reflects a sustainable level relative to long-term earnings power.”
That quarterly dividend represents a forward dividend yield of 10.7% at the time of this writing, according to Yahoo Finance.
