Ares Commercial Real Estate Co. (NYSE:ACRE) to Issue $0.25 Quarterly Dividend

Ares Commercial Real Estate Co. (NYSE:ACRE) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 6th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th.

Ares Commercial Real Estate has a payout ratio of 156.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Ares Commercial Real Estate to earn ($0.32) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -312.5%.

Ares Commercial Real Estate Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ACRE opened at $7.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $398.45 million, a PE ratio of -8.81 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.10. Ares Commercial Real Estate has a one year low of $6.36 and a one year high of $11.24.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ACRE. StockNews.com lowered Ares Commercial Real Estate from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. BTIG Research restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate in a report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Ares Commercial Real Estate from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $7.50 to $7.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.20.

About Ares Commercial Real Estate

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, a specialty finance company, originates and invests in commercial real estate (CRE) loans and related investments in the United States. It provides a range of financing solutions for the owners, operators, and sponsors of CRE properties. The company originates senior mortgage loans, subordinate debt and preferred equity products, mezzanine loans, and other CRE investments, including commercial mortgage-backed securities.