Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) Share Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation (NYSE:ACRE)’s stock price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Friday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $4.77 and traded as high as $4.81. Ares Commercial Real Estate shares last traded at $4.7250, with a volume of 560,103 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on ACRE. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $4.75 to $5.50 in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 15th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Ares Commercial Real Estate from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.33.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Stock Performance

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.77. The company has a market cap of $260.02 million, a P/E ratio of -31.50, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 1.26.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $5.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.35 million. Ares Commercial Real Estate had a negative return on equity of 5.15% and a negative net margin of 13.02%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.7%. Ares Commercial Real Estate’s payout ratio is -400.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACRE. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Ares Commercial Real Estate by 456.0% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 6,033 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 4,948 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 3,396 shares in the last quarter. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 100.3% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 10,367 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 5,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Ares Commercial Real Estate during the first quarter worth about $47,000. 41.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.