Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) Earns Market Outperform Rating from JMP Securities

JMP Securities reiterated their market outperform rating on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $15.00 target price on the stock.

FBRT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust from an outperform rating to a strong-buy rating and set a $15.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, April 12th. BTIG Research reduced their target price on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust Stock Performance

Shares of FBRT opened at $12.60 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $12.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.02. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $11.99 and a 52 week high of $14.70. The company has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 88.39 and a current ratio of 88.39.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.01). Franklin BSP Realty Trust had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 14.32%. The company had revenue of $53.95 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.44 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Franklin BSP Realty Trust will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be paid a $0.355 dividend. This represents a $1.42 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 11.27%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 28th. Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 107.58%.

Institutional Trading of Franklin BSP Realty Trust

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,973,474 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,886,000 after buying an additional 48,171 shares during the last quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services lifted its stake in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 7.9% in the first quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 690,202 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,055,000 after buying an additional 50,332 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 670,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,056,000 after buying an additional 11,998 shares during the last quarter. Orchard Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Orchard Capital Management LLC now owns 582,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,865,000 after buying an additional 30,321 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust by 1.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 530,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,017,000 after buying an additional 6,994 shares during the last quarter. 59.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).