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

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Sunday, June 30th will be given a dividend of 0.77 per share on Friday, July 26th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 9.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a payout ratio of 91.7% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall. Equities research analysts expect Blackstone Secured Lending Fund to earn $3.41 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 90.3%.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund Price Performance

Shares of BXSL stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $31.88. The stock had a trading volume of 1,049,176 shares, compared to its average volume of 928,706. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a fifty-two week low of $25.00 and a fifty-two week high of $32.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.21. The firm has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 8.70 and a beta of 0.47.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.04. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund had a net margin of 53.50% and a return on equity of 14.44%. The firm had revenue of $304.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $290.58 million. On average, analysts expect that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.63 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BXSL shares. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in a report on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.00 to $31.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $28.50 to $30.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Bank of America raised Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.92.

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).