Critical Survey: Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) versus Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG)

Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE:BXMT) and Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Simon Property Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	-12.91%	9.35%	1.68%
Simon Property Group	43.36%	76.21%	7.61%

Dividends

Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.9%. Simon Property Group pays an annual dividend of $8.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Blackstone Mortgage Trust pays out -135.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Simon Property Group pays out 111.9% 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Simon Property Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	0	5	3	0	2.38
Simon Property Group	0	7	3	0	2.30

Blackstone Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus price target of $20.07, indicating a potential upside of 16.63%. Simon Property Group has a consensus price target of $172.10, indicating a potential upside of 0.64%. Given Blackstone Mortgage Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Blackstone Mortgage Trust is more favorable than Simon Property Group.

Risk & Volatility

Blackstone Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Simon Property Group has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.2% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Simon Property Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Blackstone Mortgage Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Simon Property Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Blackstone Mortgage Trust and Simon Property Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blackstone Mortgage Trust	$532.49 million	5.59	$246.55 million	($1.39)	-12.38
Simon Property Group	$5.91 billion	9.44	$2.28 billion	$7.51	22.77

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

Summary

Simon Property Group beats Blackstone Mortgage Trust on 11 of the 15 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 Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE:SPG) is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). Simon Property Group, L.P., or the Operating Partnership, is our majority-owned partnership subsidiary that owns all of our real estate properties and other assets. In this package, the terms Simon, we, our, or the Company refer to Simon Property Group, Inc., the Operating Partnership, and its subsidiaries. We own, develop and manage premier shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, which consist primarily of malls, Premium Outlets, The Mills, and International Properties. At June 30, 2024, we owned or had an interest in 230 properties comprising 183 million square feet in North America, Asia and Europe. We also owned an 84% interest in The Taubman Realty Group, or TRG, which owns 22 regional, super-regional, and outlet malls in the U.S. and Asia. Additionally, at June 30, 2024, we had a 22.4% ownership interest in Klépierre, a publicly traded, Paris-based real estate company, which owns shopping centers in 14 European countries.