Ares Commercial Real Estate Co. (NYSE:ACRE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Ares Commercial Real Estate Co. (NYSE:ACRE) has received a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $8.42.

ACRE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a research report on Friday, July 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 27th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from $7.50 to $7.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 10th.

Institutional Trading of Ares Commercial Real Estate

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACRE. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 10.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 206,143 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,371,000 after buying an additional 19,626 shares during the last quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 200.0% in the second quarter. Curated Wealth Partners LLC now owns 20,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $133,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the last quarter. Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in the first quarter worth $630,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in the first quarter worth $108,000. Finally, Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in the first quarter worth $134,000. 41.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Stock Performance

Ares Commercial Real Estate stock opened at $7.58 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.66. The company has a market cap of $413.19 million, a P/E ratio of -9.13 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a fifty-two week low of $6.36 and a fifty-two week high of $11.24.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by ($0.34). Ares Commercial Real Estate had a positive return on equity of 0.84% and a negative net margin of 54.60%. The firm had revenue of $18.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.77 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ares Commercial Real Estate will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 28th. Ares Commercial Real Estate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -120.48%.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Company Profile

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, a specialty finance company, originates and invests in commercial real estate (CRE) loans and related investments in the United States. It provides a range of financing solutions for the owners, operators, and sponsors of CRE properties. The company originates senior mortgage loans, subordinate debt and preferred equity products, mezzanine loans, and other CRE investments, including commercial mortgage-backed securities.