Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE:ARI) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. (NYSE:ARI) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 11th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 10.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a dividend payout ratio of 86.2% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings tumble.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE ARI opened at $9.66 on Friday. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a one year low of $8.44 and a one year high of $11.20. The firm has a market cap of $1.34 billion, a PE ratio of -10.16 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 51.19 and a quick ratio of 51.19. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.27.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.30 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.07. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance had a positive return on equity of 9.37% and a negative net margin of 39.40%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance will post 0.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ARI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from $9.00 to $8.75 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $9.08.

Insider Buying and Selling at Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance

In other Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance news, CEO Stuart Rothstein sold 52,074 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.99, for a total value of $520,219.26. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 385,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,855,420.72. This represents a 11.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Carmencita N.M. Whonder sold 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.96, for a total transaction of $109,560.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $95,855.04. The trade was a 53.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.68% of the company’s stock.

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.