Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FBRT) to Issue $0.36 Quarterly Dividend

Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FBRT) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.355 per share on Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $1.42 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.67%.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has raised its dividend by an average of 72.4% annually over the last three years. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a payout ratio of 92.8% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble. Equities research analysts expect Franklin BSP Realty Trust to earn $1.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.42 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 95.3%.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE FBRT opened at $13.31 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 90.45, a current ratio of 84.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $11.96 and a 52 week high of $14.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.03 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.96.

Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.01. Franklin BSP Realty Trust had a net margin of 45.56% and a return on equity of 8.17%. The company had revenue of $55.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.28 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Franklin BSP Realty Trust will post 1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FBRT. Jones Trading restated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $16.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, B. Riley upgraded shares of Franklin BSP Realty Trust to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $15.50.

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).