Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) Stock Price Expected to Rise, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Analyst Says

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI - Free Report) had its target price hoisted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $8.00 to $9.00 in a research note published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the real estate investment trust's stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on ARI. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $10.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. BTIG Research raised shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $11.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $9.88.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ARI traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $9.49. 788,318 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,115,542. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $9.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.18. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a 12-month low of $7.70 and a 12-month high of $11.20. The stock has a market cap of $1.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.99 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 51.19, a quick ratio of 51.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.07. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance had a positive return on equity of 9.37% and a negative net margin of 39.40%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.54%. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -3,333.33%.

Insider Activity at Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance

In other Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance news, CEO Stuart Rothstein sold 52,074 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.99, for a total transaction of $520,219.26. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 385,928 shares in the company, valued at $3,855,420.72. The trade was a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Mark C. Biderman sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.48, for a total transaction of $94,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 60,787 shares in the company, valued at $576,260.76. This trade represents a 14.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 73,074 shares of company stock valued at $724,579 over the last 90 days. 0.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance during the 4th quarter worth $31,684,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,360,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 130.1% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 480,852 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock valued at $4,164,000 after buying an additional 271,908 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,745,469 shares of the real estate investment trust's stock worth $15,116,000 after buying an additional 226,399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,586,000. 54.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Company Profile

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that originates, acquires, invests in, and manages commercial first mortgage loans, subordinate financings, and other commercial real estate-related debt investments in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.