Reviewing Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE) and Killam Apartment REIT (OTCMKTS:KMMPF)

Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE:ACRE – Get Rating) and Killam Apartment REIT (OTCMKTS:KMMPF – Get Rating) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Ares Commercial Real Estate and Killam Apartment REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ares Commercial Real Estate	0	2	3	0	2.60
Killam Apartment REIT	0	0	1	0	3.00

Ares Commercial Real Estate currently has a consensus price target of $13.14, indicating a potential upside of 35.91%. Killam Apartment REIT has a consensus price target of $21.67, indicating a potential upside of 64.14%. Given Killam Apartment REIT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Killam Apartment REIT is more favorable than Ares Commercial Real Estate.

Profitability

This table compares Ares Commercial Real Estate and Killam Apartment REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ares Commercial Real Estate	27.88%	10.41%	2.98%
Killam Apartment REIT	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ares Commercial Real Estate and Killam Apartment REIT’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ares Commercial Real Estate	$106.85 million	4.94	$29.78 million	$0.60	16.12
Killam Apartment REIT	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Ares Commercial Real Estate has higher revenue and earnings than Killam Apartment REIT.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

46.6% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Ares Commercial Real Estate shares are owned by company 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.

Summary

Ares Commercial Real Estate beats Killam Apartment REIT on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ares Commercial Real Estate

(Get Rating)

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corp. engages in originating and investing in commercial real estate loans and related investments. The company was founded in September 2011 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Killam Apartment REIT

(Get Rating)

Killam Apartment REIT engages in the ownership, management and development of multi-family residential properties. It operates through the following segments: Apartments, Manufactured Home Communities, and Other. The Apartments segment includes property revenue, property operating expenses and fair value of investment property by region. The Manufactured Home Communities segment owns the land and infrastructure supporting each community and leases the lots to the tenants who own their own homes and pay Killam a monthly rent. The Other segment includes four commercial properties located in Nova Scotia. The company was founded by Philip D. Fraser and Robert G. Richardson on May 26, 2000 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.