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

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.77 per share on Friday, April 25th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has raised its dividend payment by an average of 79.8% per year over the last three years. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a dividend payout ratio of 99.0% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities research 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 Stock Performance

BXSL traded up $0.43 on Thursday, reaching $33.16. The company had a trading volume of 1,131,323 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,059,876. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.47. The company has a market cap of $7.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.21 and a beta of 0.43. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a 52-week low of $27.76 and a 52-week high of $34.64.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $346.52 million. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 53.91% and a return on equity of 13.15%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.50 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $29.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of 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 dropped their target price on shares of 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. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.54.

About Blackstone Secured Lending Fund

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).