Financial Analysis: Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) and Postal Realty Trust (NYSE:PSTL)

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) and Postal Realty Trust (NYSE:PSTL) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Postal Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	0	5	3	0	2.38
Postal Realty Trust	0	0	1	0	3.00

Blackstone Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus target price of $20.71, suggesting a potential downside of 0.28%. Postal Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 11.23%. Given Postal Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Postal Realty Trust is more favorable than Blackstone Mortgage Trust.

Dividends

Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.1%. Postal Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.97 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays out -160.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Postal Realty Trust pays out 461.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Blackstone Mortgage Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

64.2% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.9% of Postal Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.6% of Postal Realty Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Postal Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	-11.54%	8.62%	1.57%
Postal Realty Trust	4.55%	1.06%	0.55%

Volatility and Risk

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.5, meaning that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Postal Realty Trust has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Postal Realty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	$493.18 million	7.23	-$204.09 million	($1.17)	-17.75
Postal Realty Trust	$72.01 million	4.54	$3.71 million	$0.21	66.36

Postal Realty Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Blackstone Mortgage Trust. Blackstone Mortgage Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Postal Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Blackstone Mortgage Trust beats Postal Realty Trust on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blackstone Mortgage Trust

Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc., a real estate finance company, originates senior loans collateralized by commercial properties in North America, Europe, and Australia. The company originates and acquires senior floating rate mortgage loans that are secured by a first-priority mortgage on commercial real estate assets. It operates as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. The company was formerly known as Capital Trust, Inc. and changed its name to Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. in May 2013. Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Postal Realty Trust

Postal Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: PSTL) is an internally managed real estate investment trust that owns properties primarily leased to the United States Postal Service ("USPS"). PSTL is focused on acquiring the network of USPS properties, which provide a critical element of the nation's logistics infrastructure that facilitates cost effective and efficient last-mile delivery solutions. As of December 31, 2023, PSTL owned 1,509 properties (including two properties accounted for as financing leases) located in 49 states and one territory comprising approximately 5.9 million net leasable interior square feet. Subsequent to quarter-end and through February 23, 2024, PSTL closed on eight additional properties comprising approximately 33,000 net leasable interior square feet.