An excellent week for Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc.'s (NYSE:BXMT) institutional owners who own 66% as one-year returns inch higher

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 17 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Analyst forecasts along with ownership data serve to give a strong idea about prospects for a business

If you want to know who really controls Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 66% ownership. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit US$3.6b in market cap. One-year return to shareholders is currently 1.5% and last week’s gain was the icing on the cake.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Blackstone Mortgage Trust.

See our latest analysis for Blackstone Mortgage Trust

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Blackstone Mortgage Trust?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own a respectable stake in the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Blackstone Mortgage Trust's historic earnings and revenue below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story.

Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Blackstone Mortgage Trust. BlackRock, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 17% of shares outstanding. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 11% of common stock, and Blackstone Inc. holds about 4.2% of the company stock.

After doing some more digging, we found that the top 17 have the combined ownership of 50% in the company, suggesting that no single shareholder has significant control over the company.

Researching institutional ownership is a good way to gauge and filter a stock's expected performance. The same can be achieved by studying analyst sentiments. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of Blackstone Mortgage Trust

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

We can see that insiders own shares in Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc.. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own US$39m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 33% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Blackstone Mortgage Trust. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Next Steps:

It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Blackstone Mortgage Trust better, we need to consider many other factors. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Blackstone Mortgage Trust (including 1 which is a bit concerning) .

If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.