Comerica Bank Sells 1,404 Shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FBRT)

Comerica Bank cut its holdings in Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FBRT) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 28,103 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,404 shares during the period. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Franklin BSP Realty Trust were worth $352,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,162,977 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,584,000 after purchasing an additional 136,687 shares during the period. Strong Tower Advisory Services raised its position in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 1,157,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,510,000 after purchasing an additional 101,951 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,137,128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,260,000 after purchasing an additional 75,240 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 958,564 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,020,000 after purchasing an additional 142,437 shares during the period. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 725,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,104,000 after purchasing an additional 104,599 shares during the period. 59.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on FBRT shares. Jones Trading decreased their price objective on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Franklin BSP Realty Trust presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.30.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust Stock Performance

FBRT opened at $11.54 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $948.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a fifty day moving average of $11.92 and a 200 day moving average of $12.56. Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $10.50 and a fifty-two week high of $14.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 90.45 and a current ratio of 84.89.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $55.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.28 million. Franklin BSP Realty Trust had a net margin of 45.56% and a return on equity of 8.17%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. will post 1.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 10th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.355 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 12.30%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s payout ratio is 208.82%.

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust

Benefit Street Partners operates as a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). BSP earns income from investing in a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage pass-through securities consisting almost exclusively of adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) securities issued and guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, either Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (together, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)), or by an agency of the federal government, Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).