Insider Selling: Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) VP Sells 7,606 Shares of Stock

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE) VP Anton Feingold sold 7,606 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.93, for a total transaction of $37,497.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president directly owned 92,754 shares in the company, valued at $457,277.22. This trade represents a 7.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Trading Up 2.4%

ACRE traded up $0.12 during trading on Thursday, hitting $5.09. 675,426 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 575,640. The company has a market cap of $280.10 million, a PE ratio of -33.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.77. Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation has a 1 year low of $3.35 and a 1 year high of $6.09.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.35 million. Equities analysts expect that Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation will post -0.34 EPS for the current year.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders 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 11.8%. Ares Commercial Real Estate’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -400.00%.

Institutional Trading of Ares Commercial Real Estate

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 41,019 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $185,000 after buying an additional 3,371 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 94.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,997 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 3,396 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 24,105 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 4,309 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 456.0% during the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 6,033 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 4,948 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 6.5% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 83,886 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $400,000 after acquiring an additional 5,107 shares in the last quarter. 41.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACRE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $4.75 to $5.50 in a report on Monday, December 15th. Zacks Research upgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.33.

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.