Institutional investors are Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc.'s (NYSE:BXMT) biggest bettors and were rewarded after last week's US$152m market cap gain

Key Insights

• Institutions' substantial holdings in Blackstone Mortgage Trust implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price
• The top 18 shareholders own 50% of the company
• Ownership research along with analyst forecasts data help provide a good understanding of opportunities in a stock

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. We can see that institutions own the lion's share in the company with 65% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

And last week, institutional investors ended up benefitting the most after the company hit US$3.3b in market cap. The one-year return on investment is currently 15% and last week's gain would have been more than welcomed.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Blackstone Mortgage Trust.

View 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Blackstone Mortgage Trust. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is BlackRock, Inc. with 17% of shares outstanding. With 11% and 4.6% of the shares outstanding respectively, The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Blackstone Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 18 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

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

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. in their own names. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around US$31m worth of shares (at current prices). Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 34% 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. Case in point: We've spotted 3 warning signs for Blackstone Mortgage Trust you should be aware of, and 2 of them shouldn't be ignored.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter 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.