AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) and Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) Financial Analysis

Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) and AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Claros Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.5% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Claros Mortgage Trust and AG Mortgage Investment Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Claros Mortgage Trust	3	1	0	0	1.25
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	0	2	5	0	2.71

Claros Mortgage Trust currently has a consensus price target of $2.22, suggesting a potential upside of 71.57%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a consensus price target of $8.92, suggesting a potential upside of 48.98%. Given Claros Mortgage Trust’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Claros Mortgage Trust is more favorable than AG Mortgage Investment Trust.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Claros Mortgage Trust	-354.13%	-19.70%	-6.52%
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	8.55%	15.59%	0.61%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and AG Mortgage Investment Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Claros Mortgage Trust	$69.81 million	2.61	-$489.07 million	($3.83)	-0.34
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	$480.33 million	0.40	$48.67 million	$0.74	8.09

AG Mortgage Investment Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Claros Mortgage Trust. Claros Mortgage Trust 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.

Dividends

Claros Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 31.0%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.0%. Claros Mortgage Trust pays out -10.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays out 129.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Claros Mortgage Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

AG Mortgage Investment Trust beats Claros Mortgage Trust on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Claros Mortgage Trust

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. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, 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.