Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.15

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 15th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 16.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 31st.

Ares Commercial Real Estate has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.1% per year over the last three years. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a payout ratio of 260.9% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Ares Commercial Real Estate to earn $0.54 per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 111.1%.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Price Performance

Ares Commercial Real Estate stock traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $3.65. The stock had a trading volume of 1,360,510 shares, compared to its average volume of 495,138. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a one year low of $3.16 and a one year high of $5.89. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $3.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.63. The company has a market capitalization of $202.78 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.69 and a beta of 1.22.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.08. Ares Commercial Real Estate had a negative net margin of 8.04% and a positive return on equity of 4.08%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ares Commercial Real Estate will post 0.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on ACRE. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from $5.50 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $5.50 to $4.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ares Commercial Real Estate currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $5.00.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Company Profile

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation is a specialty finance company organized as a real estate investment trust (REIT). The company originates and invests in commercial real estate loans, with a primary focus on senior mortgage loans secured by properties in the United States.

Its investment portfolio may include loans backed by multifamily, office, industrial, retail, hotel and other commercial properties. Ares Commercial Real Estate generally targets transitional and other commercial real estate assets that require financing for acquisition, redevelopment, renovation or repositioning.