Legal & General Group Plc Buys New Shares in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance $ARI

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 126,142 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $1,347,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.10% of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ARI. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $127,411,000. Empyrean Capital Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in the first quarter worth approximately $9,332,000. Greenland Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in the second quarter worth approximately $9,238,000. No Street GP LP increased its stake in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance by 33.3% in the third quarter. No Street GP LP now owns 3,000,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $30,390,000 after purchasing an additional 750,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance in the second quarter worth $6,767,000. Institutional investors own 54.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday. Weiss Ratings cut Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. BTIG Research downgraded Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.33.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance stock opened at $6.89 on Monday. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has a twelve month low of $6.43 and a twelve month high of $11.24. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $7.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.71. The firm has a market cap of $885.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.61 and a beta of 1.36.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The real estate investment trust reported ($2.62) EPS for the quarter. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance had a return on equity of 7.39% and a net margin of 55.49%.The firm had revenue of $44.38 million during the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance will post -0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a dividend of $3.75 per share. This is an increase from Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $15.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 217.7%. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance’s dividend payout ratio is currently 125.00%.

About Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc (NYSE: ARI) is a real estate finance company structured as a real estate investment trust (REIT). The company focuses on originating, acquiring and managing a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate debt and preferred equity investments. As an externally managed vehicle, ARI leverages the expertise and resources of an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, a leading global alternative investment manager.

ARI’s investment strategy is centered on providing first mortgage loans, mezzanine debt financing, bridge loans and preferred equity across a broad range of property types, including office, retail, industrial and multifamily assets.