KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE:KREF) and Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) Financial Contrast

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE:KREF) and Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for KKR Real Estate Finance Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust	1	2	3	0	2.33
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	1	0	0	0	1.00

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust currently has a consensus price target of $11.44, indicating a potential upside of 32.00%. Given KKR Real Estate Finance Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe KKR Real Estate Finance Trust is more favorable than Altisource Portfolio Solutions.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.2% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares KKR Real Estate Finance Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust	$135.31 million	4.21	$35.59 million	($0.66)	-13.13
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	$168.27 million	0.78	-$35.64 million	($4.36)	-2.73

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Altisource Portfolio Solutions. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Altisource Portfolio Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares KKR Real Estate Finance Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust	-4.43%	1.61%	0.33%
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	-4.10%	N/A	-8.68%

Volatility and Risk

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust beats Altisource Portfolio Solutions on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About KKR Real Estate Finance Trust

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc., a mortgage real estate investment trust, focuses primarily on originating and acquiring transitional senior loans secured by commercial real estate (CRE) assets. It engages in the origination and purchase of credit investments related to CRE, including leveraged and unleveraged commercial real estate loans. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust and would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Altisource Portfolio Solutions

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. operates as an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through Servicer and Real Estate, and Origination segments. The Servicer and Real Estate segment offers property preservation, inspection, title insurance and settlement, real estate valuation, foreclosure trustee, and residential and commercial construction inspection and risk mitigation services. This segment provides Hubzu, an online real estate auction platform, as well as real estate auction, real estate brokerage, and asset management services; Equator, a software-as-a-service technology to manage real estate owned, short sales, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction processes; a vendor invoicing and payment system; RentRange, a single and multi-family rental data, analytics, and rent-based valuation solution; REALSynergy, a commercial loan servicing platform; and NestRange, an automated residential valuation model and analytics solution. The Origination segment offers loan fulfillment, certification and certification insurance services, management services. In addition, it provides Lendors One Loan Automation, a marketplace to order services and a tool to automate components of the loan manufacturing process; TrelixAI, a technology to manage the workflow and automate components of the loan fulfillment, pre and post close quality, and service transfer processes; and ADMS, a document management and data analytics delivery platform. The company serves financial institutions, government-sponsored enterprises, banks, asset managers, servicers, investors, property management firms, real estate brokerages, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, originators, and correspondent and private money lenders. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.