Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.77 (NYSE:BXSL)

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 9.13%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has raised its dividend by an average of 79.8% per year over the last three years. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a payout ratio of 99.0% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities 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 Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund stock opened at $33.72 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $32.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.48. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a twelve month low of $27.76 and a twelve month high of $34.64. The stock has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.37 and a beta of 0.43.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $33.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Compass Point cut their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.50 to $32.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.50 to $32.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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).