The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (NYSE:KREF). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Real Estate company by 0.10% to 5.67 million shares with purchase of 5542.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 8.18% valued currently at $74.98 million. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 58853.0 to 2.28 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 3.59% or 42984.0 shares – to 1.24 million shares.
With over 0.48 million KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (KREF) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $12.86 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.16 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -0.54% and its price on 01/12/24 lost nearly -1.00%. Currently, there are 69.10M common shares owned by the public and among those 57.80M shares have been available to trade.
An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 7 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for KREF have a consensus price objective of $12.93. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $14.50 and a low of $11.00. The average price target is 0.54% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -16.91% over that period. But an upside of 11.31% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $13.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 13 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 8 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 91,370 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 5 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 81,933 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 3.9 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $51.56 million. The company sold 31422.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 5.62% of the shares outstanding. iShares Russell 2000 ETF sold 4248.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 1.6 million shares valued at over $21.19 million and representing 2.31% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF now owns shares totaling to 2.09% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (NYSE: KREF) opened at $13.15, up $0.16 from a prior closing price of $12.99. However, the script later moved the day high at 13.29, down -1.00%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.08% and 12.12% over the past three months. KREF shares are trading -2.80% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -13.05% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $9.94 and touched a high of $16.44 over the same period. KREF has an average intraday trading volume of 486.05K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -3.96%, 2.12%, and 8.17% respectively.
Institutional ownership of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (NYSE: KREF) shares accounts for 58.44% of the company’s 69.10M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.03%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 39.09% and 23.50% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $891.33M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.05. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio at 4.20. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.34% over the week and 2.45% over the month.
Analysts forecast that KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (KREF) will achieve an EPS of $0.11 for the current quarter, $0.43 for the next quarter and $1.55 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.62 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.45. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.18 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -3.70%, and -25.96% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 17.30% over the next five years, compared to -29.43% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 7 brokerage firm advisors rate KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc (KREF) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.71. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 2 of the 7 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the KREF, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BTIG Research stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on April 25, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $12.
