Claros Mortgage Trust (NYSE:CMTG) and Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) Head to Head Survey

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

Dividends

Claros Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 24.1%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.5%. Claros Mortgage Trust pays out -10.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays out 181.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Claros Mortgage Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.5% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.9% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Claros Mortgage Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Claros Mortgage Trust	$69.81 million	3.35	-$489.07 million	($3.83)	-0.43
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$270.07 million	2.60	$82.27 million	$0.44	19.23

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Claros Mortgage Trust. Claros Mortgage Trust 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.

Risk and Volatility

Claros Mortgage Trust has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Claros Mortgage Trust and Franklin BSP Realty 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%
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	20.49%	5.82%	1.17%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Claros Mortgage Trust and Franklin BSP Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Claros Mortgage Trust	3	1	0	0	1.25
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	1	1	3	0	2.40

Claros Mortgage Trust presently has a consensus price target of $2.22, suggesting a potential upside of 33.53%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a consensus price target of $11.50, suggesting a potential upside of 35.93%. Given Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Franklin BSP Realty Trust is more favorable than Claros Mortgage Trust.

Summary

Franklin BSP Realty Trust beats Claros Mortgage Trust on 10 of the 16 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 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.