Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) & Altisource Asset Management (NYSE:AAMC) Critical Review

Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) and Altisource Asset Management (NYSE:AAMC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and Altisource Asset Management’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Claros Mortgage Trust	$306.55 million	4.12	$6.03 million	($0.62)	-14.69
Altisource Asset Management	-$18.34 million	-0.46	-$32.55 million	$39.83	0.08

Claros Mortgage Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Altisource Asset Management. Claros Mortgage Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Altisource Asset Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and Altisource Asset Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Claros Mortgage Trust	-28.16%	1.51%	0.43%
Altisource Asset Management	N/A	N/A	-67.03%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.5% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.7% of Altisource Asset Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Altisource Asset Management shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Claros Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.53, suggesting that its stock price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Altisource Asset Management has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Claros Mortgage Trust and Altisource Asset Management, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Claros Mortgage Trust	1	5	0	0	1.83
Altisource Asset Management	0	0	0	0	N/A

Claros Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus target price of $9.38, suggesting a potential upside of 2.91%. Given Claros Mortgage Trust’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Claros Mortgage Trust is more favorable than Altisource Asset Management.

Summary

Claros Mortgage Trust beats Altisource Asset Management on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Claros Mortgage Trust

Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust. It focuses on originating senior and subordinate loans on transitional commercial real estate assets in the United States. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Altisource Asset Management

AAMC has historically been an asset management company that provides portfolio management and corporate governance services to investment vehicles but given the sale and discontinuance of certain operations the Company is in the process of repositioning itself. Additional information is available at www.altisourceamc.com.