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

Ares Commercial Real Estate Co. (NYSE:ACRE) has been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $8.42.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on ACRE shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $7.50 to $7.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 10th. TheStreet downgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “c-” rating to a “d+” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $10.50 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 27th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACRE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,783,379 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,736,000 after acquiring an additional 34,611 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 790,404 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,889,000 after acquiring an additional 81,534 shares during the period. MGO One Seven LLC lifted its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 2,609.3% during the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 570,331 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,909,000 after acquiring an additional 549,280 shares during the period. Relative Value Partners Group LLC lifted its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Relative Value Partners Group LLC now owns 416,194 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,312,000 after acquiring an additional 6,588 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 413,500 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $3,081,000 after acquiring an additional 27,321 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.34% of the company’s stock.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACRE opened at $6.65 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $6.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.11. 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 1-year low of $6.36 and a 1-year high of $11.24. The company has a market cap of $362.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.01 and a beta of 1.44.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $18.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.77 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.26 EPS. Analysts forecast that Ares Commercial Real Estate will post -2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 16th. Investors of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 15.05%. Ares Commercial Real Estate’s dividend payout ratio is presently -120.48%.

About Ares Commercial Real Estate

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.