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
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE:KREF) and Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.
In the previous week, Ares Commercial Real Estate had 2 more articles in the media than KKR Real Estate Finance Trust. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Ares Commercial Real Estate and 5 mentions for KKR Real Estate Finance Trust. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.23 beat Ares Commercial Real Estate's score of 0.37 indicating that KKR Real Estate Finance Trust is being referred to more favorably in the media.
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust presently has a consensus target price of $11.44, indicating a potential upside of 32.84%. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a consensus target price of $4.83, indicating a potential upside of 8.37%. 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.
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.
70.2% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.3% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Ares Commercial Real Estate. Ares Commercial Real Estate is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KKR Real Estate Finance Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ares Commercial Real Estate has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.6%. Ares Commercial Real Estate pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 13.5%. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust pays out -151.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ares Commercial Real Estate pays out -176.5% 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.
Summary
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust beats Ares Commercial Real Estate on 12 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.
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.
KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:KREF) was last updated on 10/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
