Analyzing Ladder Capital (NYSE:LADR) & Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT)

Ladder Capital (NYSE:LADR – Get Rating) and Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Dividends

Ladder Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.6%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.6%. Ladder Capital pays out 78.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays out 236.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ladder Capital has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ladder Capital and Franklin BSP Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ladder Capital	0	1	2	0	2.67
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	0	1	4	0	2.80

Ladder Capital presently has a consensus target price of $11.25, suggesting a potential upside of 16.94%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $14.75, suggesting a potential upside of 9.99%. Given Ladder Capital’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Ladder Capital is more favorable than Franklin BSP Realty Trust.

Risk and Volatility

Ladder Capital has a beta of 1.88, suggesting that its share price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.1% of Ladder Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.4% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.7% of Ladder Capital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Ladder Capital and Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ladder Capital	26.06%	9.43%	2.43%
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	31.98%	10.88%	2.36%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ladder Capital and Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ladder Capital	$544.59 million	2.23	$142.22 million	$1.17	8.22
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$423.64 million	2.60	$14.43 million	$0.60	22.35

Ladder Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Franklin BSP Realty Trust. Ladder Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Franklin BSP Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ladder Capital beats Franklin BSP Realty Trust on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ladder Capital

(Get Rating)

Ladder Capital Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial real estate finance services. It operates through the following segments: Loans, Securities, Real Estate, and Corporate and Other. The Loans segment includes mortgage loan receivables held for investment and mortgage loan receivables held for sale. The Securities segment consists of all the company’s activities related to commercial real estate securities, as well as investments in commercial mortgage-backed securities, United States agency securities, corporate bonds, and equity securities. The Real Estate segment is involved in the net leased properties, office buildings, student housing portfolios, hotels, industrial buildings, a shopping center, and condominium units. The Corporate and Other segment represents the company’s investments in joint ventures, other asset management activities, and operating expenses. The company was founded by Pamela McCormack, Robert Perelman, and Brian Harris in October 2008 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust

(Get Rating)

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). BSP’s investment strategy focuses on managing a portfolio of residential mortgage investments consisting almost exclusively of ARM Agency Securities. As of December 31, 2012, the Company’s securities consisted of Agency Securities classified as available-for-sale and Residential mortgage securities classified as held-to-maturity.