10 Best Asset Management Stocks to Buy According to Short Sellers

3. Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors  in Q2 2024: N/A

Short Interest % of Shares Outstanding: 0.23

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) is one of the biggest business development companies (BDCs) in the world with $11.3 billion of investments under its belt. The firm has a global presence, which allows it to hedge against a slow market in one geographical territory. It also provides Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) exposure to a wide variety of businesses to target with its loan and other financing products, including middle and small sized firms that are typically willing to take on more risk and costly loans when compared to their larger peers. Due to its business model, which relies primarily on loans, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL) depends heavily on healthy loan repayments from its targets. These payments tend to pick up during a global economy that is unhampered. by inflation and a broader slowdown. The firm also benefits from a pickup in the private equity market which creates more room for it to enter into deals.

Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (NYSE:BXSL)’s management shared key details for its repayment trends during the Q2 2024 earnings call:

“Further, despite the spread tightening cycle across fixed income markets so far this year and an increase in broadly syndicated activity, we continue to experience muted repayment activity as Brad outlined. In the second quarter, we saw $89 million of repayments or a 3% annualized repayment rate, bringing our year-to-date repayment rate to 4%, which compares to 10% for all of 2023. In fact, we did not have any exposure refinanced out by the syndicated market in the second quarter. It is also worth noting that in a declining rate environment, one may naturally expect an increase in portfolio turnover, but our portfolio had few realizations in the quarter.”