Ready Capital (NYSE:RC) Hits New 12-Month Low on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Ready Capital Corp (NYSE:RC) reached a new 52-week low on Monday after B. Riley lowered their price target on the stock from $6.00 to $4.00. B. Riley currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Ready Capital traded as low as $3.89 and last traded at $3.89, with a volume of 638588 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.07.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Ready Capital from $4.75 to $4.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Ready Capital from $3.75 to $4.25 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.04.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in Ready Capital by 27.6% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 116,462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $593,000 after acquiring an additional 25,198 shares during the period. Sowell Financial Services LLC grew its stake in Ready Capital by 14.3% in the first quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 52,763 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $269,000 after acquiring an additional 6,591 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Ready Capital by 40.5% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 79,072 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $402,000 after acquiring an additional 22,797 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Ready Capital in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,839,000. Finally, Sound Income Strategies LLC grew its stake in Ready Capital by 9,654.5% in the first quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC now owns 60,478 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 59,858 shares during the period. 55.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ready Capital Trading Down 6.8%

The stock has a market capitalization of $647.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.05 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 1.78.

Ready Capital (NYSE:RC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The real estate investment trust reported ($0.14) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.13). The firm had revenue of ($9.77) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $167.26 million. Ready Capital had a negative net margin of 40.59% and a positive return on equity of 3.76%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ready Capital Corp will post 0.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Ready Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 30th. Ready Capital’s payout ratio is -27.03%.

About Ready Capital

Ready Capital Corporation operates as a real estate finance company in the United States. It operates through two segments: LMM Commercial Real Estate and Small Business Lending. The company originates, acquires, finances, and services lower-to-middle-market (LLM) commercial real estate loans, small business administration (SBA) loans, residential mortgage loans, construction loans, and mortgage-backed securities collateralized primarily by LLM loans, or other real estate-related investments.