Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:CMTG) Short Interest Up 5.5% in March

Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:CMTG) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,850,000 shares, a growth of 5.5% from the February 29th total of 3,650,000 shares. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 312,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 12.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CMTG shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Claros Mortgage Trust from $11.50 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on shares of Claros Mortgage Trust from $10.75 to $9.75 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Claros Mortgage Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.44.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Claros Mortgage Trust

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Claros Mortgage Trust by 200.4% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,154 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 1,437 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Claros Mortgage Trust by 204.5% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 1,693 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Claros Mortgage Trust by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 2,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 673 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Claros Mortgage Trust in the second quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Claros Mortgage Trust in the first quarter worth about $104,000. 89.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Claros Mortgage Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CMTG opened at $9.35 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 25.03, a current ratio of 25.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a PE ratio of 467.73 and a beta of 1.58. Claros Mortgage Trust has a twelve month low of $9.06 and a twelve month high of $15.25. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $10.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.34.

Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $75.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.79 million. Claros Mortgage Trust had a net margin of 1.97% and a return on equity of 2.01%. Equities analysts forecast that Claros Mortgage Trust will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Claros Mortgage Trust Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 29th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Claros Mortgage Trust’s payout ratio is 5,002.50%.

Claros Mortgage Trust Company Profile

Claros Mortgage Trust, Inc operates as a real estate investment trust. It focuses on originating senior and subordinate loans on transitional commercial real estate assets in the United States. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders.