UPDATE: Bank of America Reiterates on Blackstone Mortgage Trust Following Equity Deal

In a report published Thursday, Bank of America analyst Kenneth Bruce reiterated a Neutral rating on

, but lowered the price target from $32.00 to $30.00. In the report, Bank of America noted, “Blackstone Mortgage issued 8M shares of stock, excluding the Greenshoe, raising ~$225M of equity capital to support robust commercial mortgage origination activity and investment portfolio growth. The timing of the capital raise suggests origination activity continues to pace ahead of our expectations and the offering should prove accretive to BV, based on our estimates. "We forecast BV to be ~$25.00 at Q2'14, including a $0.49 p.s. dividend. The pace of equity issuance in 2014 underscores BXMT's investment growth and gives us further confidence that it will scale up its operations to take advantage of the attractive commercial loan investment backdrop. Maintain Neutral.” Blackstone Mortgage Trust closed on Wednesday at $28.38.