Critical Contrast: AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) versus ACRES Commercial Realty (NYSE:ACR)

ACRES Commercial Realty (NYSE:ACR) and AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for ACRES Commercial Realty and AG Mortgage Investment Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ACRES Commercial Realty	1	1	2	0	2.25
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	0	3	6	0	2.67

ACRES Commercial Realty presently has a consensus target price of $24.50, indicating a potential upside of 71.22%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a consensus target price of $8.93, indicating a potential upside of 33.88%. Given ACRES Commercial Realty’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe ACRES Commercial Realty is more favorable than AG Mortgage Investment Trust.

Profitability

This table compares ACRES Commercial Realty and AG Mortgage Investment Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ACRES Commercial Realty	22.62%	2.42%	0.58%
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	8.55%	15.59%	0.61%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ACRES Commercial Realty and AG Mortgage Investment Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ACRES Commercial Realty	$79.95 million	1.28	$21.32 million	($1.12)	-12.78
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	$480.33 million	0.44	$48.67 million	$0.74	9.01

AG Mortgage Investment Trust has higher revenue and earnings than ACRES Commercial Realty. ACRES Commercial Realty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AG Mortgage Investment Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

40.0% of ACRES Commercial Realty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 4.6% of ACRES Commercial Realty shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

ACRES Commercial Realty has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AG Mortgage Investment Trust beats ACRES Commercial Realty on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ACRES Commercial Realty

ACRES Commercial Realty Corp., a real estate investment trust (REIT), focuses on the origination, holding, and management of commercial real estate mortgage loans and equity investments in commercial real estate property in the United States. It invests in commercial real estate-related assets, including floating-rate first mortgage loans, first priority interests in first mortgage loans, subordinated interests in first mortgage loans, mezzanine financing, preferred equity investments, and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. The company was formerly known as Exantas Capital Corp. and changed its name to ACRES Commercial Realty Corp. in February 2021. ACRES Commercial Realty Corp. was incorporated in 2005 and is based in Uniondale, New York.

About AG Mortgage Investment Trust

AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. operates as a residential mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States. Its investment portfolio includes residential investments, including non-agency loans, agency-eligible loans, re-and non-performing loans, and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as commercial loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is based in New York, New York.