Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) Receives $5.33 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $5.3333.

ACRE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $4.75 to $5.50 in a report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACRE opened at $5.05 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $4.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.77. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a fifty-two week low of $3.35 and a fifty-two week high of $6.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $277.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.63 and a beta of 1.27.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.17. Ares Commercial Real Estate had a negative return on equity of 5.15% and a negative net margin of 13.02%.The company had revenue of $5.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.35 million. Research analysts expect that Ares Commercial Real Estate will post -0.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 11.9%. Ares Commercial Real Estate’s dividend payout ratio is -400.00%.

Institutional Trading of Ares Commercial Real Estate

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 456.0% during the 3rd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 6,033 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 4,948 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 94.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,997 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 3,396 shares during the period. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate during the third quarter worth $38,000. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate in the first quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 100.3% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 10,367 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 5,192 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.34% of the company’s stock.

About Ares Commercial Real Estate

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE: ACRE) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) primarily focused on commercial real estate debt investments. Externally managed by an affiliate of Ares Management Corporation, ACRE seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through its diversified portfolio of CRE financing strategies. The company specializes in originating, acquiring, financing and managing first mortgages, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and other structured finance products.

Since its inception, Ares Commercial Real Estate has targeted a broad range of property types, including multifamily, office, industrial, retail and hospitality assets.