Lument Finance Trust (NYSE:LFT) & PJT Partners (NYSE:PJT) Financial Review

Lument Finance Trust (NYSE:LFT) and PJT Partners (NYSE:PJT) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Lument Finance Trust has a beta of 0.77, indicating that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PJT Partners has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.5% of Lument Finance Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of PJT Partners shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Lument Finance Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.8% of PJT Partners shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Lument Finance Trust and PJT Partners, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lument Finance Trust	0	2	0	0	2.00
PJT Partners	1	4	0	0	1.80

PJT Partners has a consensus target price of $174.67, suggesting a potential downside of 2.79%. Given PJT Partners’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PJT Partners is more favorable than Lument Finance Trust.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Lument Finance Trust and PJT Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lument Finance Trust	$122.13 million	1.00	$22.65 million	$0.19	12.24
PJT Partners	$1.49 billion	2.93	$238.47 million	$5.82	30.87

PJT Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Lument Finance Trust. Lument Finance Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PJT Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Lument Finance Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.3%. PJT Partners pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Lument Finance Trust pays out 126.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PJT Partners pays out 17.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lument Finance Trust has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Lument Finance Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Lument Finance Trust and PJT Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lument Finance Trust	14.50%	12.51%	2.01%
PJT Partners	10.45%	25.61%	14.50%

Summary

PJT Partners beats Lument Finance Trust on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lument Finance Trust

Lument Finance Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust, focuses on investing in, financing, and managing a portfolio of commercial real estate (CRE) debt investments in the United States. The company primarily invests in transitional floating rate CRE mortgage loans on middle market multi-family assets; and other CRE -related investments, including mezzanine loans, preferred equity, commercial mortgage-backed securities, fixed rate loans, construction loans, and other CRE debt instruments. Lument Finance Trust, Inc. is qualified as a real estate investment trust (REIT) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was formerly known as Hunt Companies Finance Trust, Inc. and changed its name to Lument Finance Trust, Inc. in December 2020. Lument Finance Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About PJT Partners

PJT Partners Inc., an investment bank, provides various strategic and capital markets advisory, restructuring and special situations, and shareholder advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, institutional investors, and governments worldwide. It offers advisory services to clients on various transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), spin-offs, activism defense, contested M&A, joint ventures, minority investments, and divestitures. The company also advises private and public company boards and management teams on strategies for building productive investor relationships with a focus on shareholder engagement; and strategic investor relations; environmental, social, and governance matters; and other investor-related matters. In addition, it provides advisory services related to debt and acquisition financings; structured product offerings; public equity raises, including initial public offering and SPAC offerings; and private capital raises for early and later stage companies, as well as other capital structure related matters. Further, the company offers advisory services in financial restructurings and reorganizations; liability management; distressed mergers and acquisitions; and to management teams, corporate boards, sponsors and creditors. Additionally, it provides private fund advisory and fundraising services for a range of investment strategies; and advisory services to general and partners on liquidity and other structured solutions. The company was formerly known as Blackstone Advisory Inc. and changed its name to PJT Partners Inc. in March 2015. PJT Partners Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in New York, New York.