Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) Cut to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $4.75 to $5.50 in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group raised their price target 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.33.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Stock Performance

Ares Commercial Real Estate stock opened at $5.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $287.26 million, a P/E ratio of -34.80, a PEG ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.26. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a fifty-two week low of $3.35 and a fifty-two week high of $6.09. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.81.

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $11.35 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Ares Commercial Real Estate will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ares Commercial Real Estate news, CFO Jeffrey Michael Gonzales sold 6,218 shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.93, for a total value of $30,654.74. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 88,533 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $436,467.69. The trade was a 6.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Bryan Patrick Donohoe sold 21,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.93, for a total value of $107,281.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 250,197 shares in the company, valued at $1,233,471.21. The trade was a 8.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 35,585 shares of company stock valued at $175,434 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ares Commercial Real Estate

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Ares Commercial Real Estate during the first quarter worth $129,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate during the 1st quarter worth $166,000. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate during the 1st quarter worth $47,000. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 82,402 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $393,000 after purchasing an additional 8,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate by 94.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,997 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 3,396 shares during the period. 41.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.