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KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (KREF) Competitors

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust logo
$9.25 -0.03 (-0.32%)
Closing price 08/8/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$9.24 -0.01 (-0.05%)
As of 08/8/2025 06:12 PM Eastern
Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more.

KREF vs. ACRE, ARI, BRSP, BXMT, EFC, FBRT, LADR, MFA, RITM, and STWD

Should you be buying KKR Real Estate Finance Trust stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust include Ares Commercial Real Estate (ACRE), Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (ARI), BrightSpire Capital (BRSP), Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT), Ellington Financial (EFC), Franklin BSP Realty Trust (FBRT), Ladder Capital (LADR), MFA Financial (MFA), Rithm Capital (RITM), and STARWOOD PROPERTY TRUST (STWD). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust vs. Its Competitors

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) and KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE:KREF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Ares Commercial Real Estate presently has a consensus target price of $5.31, suggesting a potential upside of 21.99%. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a consensus target price of $11.95, suggesting a potential upside of 29.19%. Given KKR Real Estate Finance Trust's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe KKR Real Estate Finance Trust is more favorable than Ares Commercial Real Estate.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Ares Commercial Real Estate
1 Sell rating(s)
4 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.80
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
4 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.80

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

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Ares Commercial Real Estate$69.65M3.44-$34.99M-$0.34-12.81
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust$564.63M1.08$35.59M-$0.66-14.02

Ares Commercial Real Estate pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.8%. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.8%. Ares Commercial Real Estate pays out -176.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust pays out -151.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ares Commercial Real Estate is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Ares Commercial Real Estate has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

41.3% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.2% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.8% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

In the previous week, Ares Commercial Real Estate had 16 more articles in the media than KKR Real Estate Finance Trust. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Ares Commercial Real Estate and 2 mentions for KKR Real Estate Finance Trust. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.75 beat Ares Commercial Real Estate's score of -0.01 indicating that KKR Real Estate Finance Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Ares Commercial Real Estate
3 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
6 Neutral mention(s)
3 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Neutral
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust
2 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Very Positive

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a net margin of -4.43% compared to Ares Commercial Real Estate's net margin of -29.57%. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust's return on equity of 1.61% beat Ares Commercial Real Estate's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Ares Commercial Real Estate-29.57% -5.44% -1.78%
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust -4.43%1.61%0.33%

Summary

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust beats Ares Commercial Real Estate on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding KREF and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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KREF vs. The Competition

MetricKKR Real Estate Finance TrustREIT IndustryFinance SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$607.54M$1.48B$12.22B$20.63B
Dividend Yield10.82%12.99%5.63%3.65%
P/E Ratio-14.0212.9819.3228.07
Price / Sales1.083.1626.2676.23
Price / Cash5.4810.7018.2317.60
Price / Book0.450.752.224.61
Net Income$35.59M$79.73M$1.00B$994.05M
7 Day Performance0.60%-0.99%0.34%0.54%
1 Month Performance0.22%-2.37%-0.02%-0.97%
1 Year Performance-14.75%-9.98%543.78%14.31%

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
KREF
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust
4.2119 of 5 stars
$9.25
-0.3%
$11.95
+29.2%
-14.7%$607.54M$564.63M-14.02N/APositive News
ACRE
Ares Commercial Real Estate
3.3804 of 5 stars
$4.51
+1.5%
$5.58
+23.8%
-35.9%$244.22M$69.65M-18.023,200Dividend Announcement
Analyst Downgrade
ARI
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance
2.6119 of 5 stars
$9.92
+1.4%
$10.31
+4.0%
-2.1%$1.36B$303.67M-70.82N/APositive News
BRSP
BrightSpire Capital
3.124 of 5 stars
$5.32
+3.0%
$6.79
+27.8%
+2.2%$670.77M$244.77M-24.1650Positive News
BXMT
Blackstone Mortgage Trust
3.2941 of 5 stars
$18.87
+1.2%
$20.00
+6.0%
+7.9%$3.20B$1.77B-269.57N/ANews Coverage
Positive News
EFC
Ellington Financial
3.6517 of 5 stars
$12.94
+1.9%
$14.30
+10.5%
+1.1%$1.20B$136.41M9.18170Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
FBRT
Franklin BSP Realty Trust
3.67 of 5 stars
$10.82
+3.2%
$15.13
+39.9%
-12.6%$862.24M$210.45M11.04N/AHigh Trading Volume
LADR
Ladder Capital
4.8694 of 5 stars
$11.03
+1.5%
$12.75
+15.6%
-4.8%$1.39B$506.84M15.7660Positive News
MFA
MFA Financial
4.2901 of 5 stars
$9.18
+0.5%
$12.07
+31.6%
-20.0%$937.22M$723.97M9.36350Earnings Report
RITM
Rithm Capital
4.1756 of 5 stars
$12.19
+1.2%
$14.00
+14.8%
+9.9%$6.39B$5.21B9.386,045
STWD
STARWOOD PROPERTY TRUST
3.7421 of 5 stars
$19.50
+0.6%
$21.70
+11.3%
+1.8%$7.11B$1.95B20.52290Positive News
Earnings Report
Analyst Upgrade

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This page (NYSE:KREF) was last updated on 8/11/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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