Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) CEO Sells $529,051.52 in Stock

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) CEO Stuart Rothstein sold 52,072 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.16, for a total transaction of $529,051.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 229,709 shares in the company, valued at $2,333,843.44. This represents a 18.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Price Performance

NYSE:ARI traded down $0.28 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $9.91. 956,381 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,042,745. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a 52-week low of $7.70 and a 52-week high of $11.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $10.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.07. The company has a current ratio of 90.32, a quick ratio of 90.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.54.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $63.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.15 million. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance had a return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 51.40%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance will post 0.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 10.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance’s payout ratio is 112.36%.

Institutional Trading of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ARI. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $271,921,000. No Street GP LP grew its position in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 33.3% in the third quarter. No Street GP LP now owns 3,000,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,390,000 after acquiring an additional 750,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 2.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,326,569 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $22,265,000 after acquiring an additional 63,191 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 6.9% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,085,917 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $21,130,000 after purchasing an additional 134,308 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 50.4% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,291,072 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $12,498,000 after purchasing an additional 432,377 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 54.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 22nd. Zacks Research cut shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from $10.75 to $11.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from $10.50 to $11.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.88.

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.