Financial Survey: Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) and Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS)

Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) and Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, valuation, risk, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	1	1	3	0	2.40
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	2	0	0	1	2.00

Franklin BSP Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $11.50, suggesting a potential upside of 49.45%. Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 52.38%. Given Altisource Portfolio Solutions’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Altisource Portfolio Solutions is more favorable than Franklin BSP Realty Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$270.07 million	2.37	$82.27 million	$0.44	17.49
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	$170.98 million	0.35	$1.62 million	($0.99)	-5.30

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Altisource Portfolio Solutions. Altisource Portfolio Solutions 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.

Profitability

This table compares Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Altisource Portfolio Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	20.49%	5.82%	1.17%
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	-5.93%	-1.69%	1.31%

Volatility & Risk

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.9% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.1% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Franklin BSP Realty Trust beats Altisource Portfolio Solutions on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust

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.

About Altisource Portfolio Solutions

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. operates as an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through Servicer and Real Estate, and Origination segments. The Servicer and Real Estate segment offers property preservation, inspection, title insurance and settlement, real estate valuation, foreclosure trustee, and residential and commercial construction inspection and risk mitigation services. This segment provides Hubzu, an online real estate auction platform, as well as real estate auction, real estate brokerage, and asset management services; Equator, a software-as-a-service technology to manage real estate owned, short sales, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction processes; a vendor invoicing and payment system; RentRange, a single and multi-family rental data, analytics, and rent-based valuation solution; REALSynergy, a commercial loan servicing platform; and NestRange, an automated residential valuation model and analytics solution. The Origination segment offers loan fulfillment, certification and certification insurance services, management services. In addition, it provides Lendors One Loan Automation, a marketplace to order services and a tool to automate components of the loan manufacturing process; TrelixAI, a technology to manage the workflow and automate components of the loan fulfillment, pre and post close quality, and service transfer processes; and ADMS, a document management and data analytics delivery platform. The company serves financial institutions, government-sponsored enterprises, banks, asset managers, servicers, investors, property management firms, real estate brokerages, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, originators, and correspondent and private money lenders. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.