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

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.66%. The ex-dividend date 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 decline. 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 Trading Up 0.5 %

BXSL stock opened at $31.90 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 0.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.23. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund has a 1-year low of $25.00 and a 1-year high of $32.67.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $304.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $290.58 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on BXSL. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund in a report on Thursday, February 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. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Blackstone Secured Lending Fund from $30.00 to $31.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.92.

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).