Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript
Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 14, 2024
Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.69, expectations were $0.66. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. isn’t one of the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Blackstone Mortgage Trust Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Investor Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time all participants are in a listen-mode only. [Operator Instructions]. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Tim Hayes, Vice President, Shareholder Relations. Please go ahead.
Timothy Hayes: Good morning, and welcome everyone to Blackstone Mortgage Trust's fourth quarter and full year quarter 2023 conference call. I'm joined today by Jonathan Pollock, Blackstone's Global Head of Real Estate Credit, Tim Johnson, Global Head of BREDS and Chair of the Board of Directors, Katie Keenan, Chief Executive Officer, Tony Marone, Chief Financial Officer, and Austin Pena, Executive Vice President of Investments. This morning, we filed our 10-Q and issued a press release with the presentation of our results, which are available on our website and have been filed with the SEC. I'd like to remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors outside of the company's control.
Actual results may differ materially. For a discussion of some of the risks that could affect results, please see the Risk Factors section of our most recent 10-K. We do not undertake any duty to update forward-looking statements. We will also refer to certain non-GAAP measures on this call. And for reconciliations, you should refer to the press release and our 10-Q. This audio cast is copyrighted material of Blackstone Mortgage Trust and may not be duplicated without our consent. For the fourth quarter, we reported a GAAP net loss of $0.01 per share, while distributable earnings were $0.69 per share. A few weeks ago, we paid a dividend of $0.62 per share with respect to the fourth quarter. Please let me know if you have any questions following today's call.
With that, I'll now turn things over to Katie.
Katie Keenan: Thanks, Tim. The BXMT weathered a challenging 2023 with results that underscore the resilience of our business. We reported record interest income and distributable earnings, generating $3.05 per share for the year and covering our dividend 123%. This dividend delivered $2.48 per share of current income to our shareholders, exceeding the $1.10 net reduction in our book value from CECL reserve increases and underpinning a positive total return in 2023. And we maintained near record levels of liquidity and reduced our leverage over the course of the year. Moving into 2024, while the path clearly will not be linear, we see an improving backdrop with inflation receding, rates moving lower, and the economy showing stability.
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