KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (NYSE:KREF) Short Interest Update

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (NYSE:KREF) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,230,000 shares, a growth of 15.0% from the March 15th total of 1,070,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 615,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other KKR Real Estate Finance Trust news, COO W Patrick Mattson bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $9.72 per share, with a total value of $97,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now owns 308,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,998,095.12. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other KKR Real Estate Finance Trust news, CEO Matthew A. Salem bought 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $9.72 per share, with a total value of $252,720.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 460,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,474,203.48. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO W Patrick Mattson bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $9.72 per share, for a total transaction of $97,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 308,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,998,095.12. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 0.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,315,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,543,000 after buying an additional 52,577 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 3.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,535,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,945,000 after purchasing an additional 204,534 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 2.1% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,270,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,837,000 after purchasing an additional 45,796 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 330.9% during the first quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,516,913 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,278,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164,851 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 18.8% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,285,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,496,000 after purchasing an additional 203,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KREF traded down $0.09 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $9.51. 496,333 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 600,635. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $9.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.35. The stock has a market cap of $659.14 million, a P/E ratio of -12.19 and a beta of 0.96. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has a one year low of $9.09 and a one year high of $14.12. The company has a quick ratio of 361.75, a current ratio of 361.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.32.

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 10.52%. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust’s payout ratio is presently -128.21%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KREF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities decreased their price objective on shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $14.50 to $13.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $11.50 to $10.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $12.00 to $10.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, KKR Real Estate Finance Trust has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.33.

About KKR Real Estate Finance Trust

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc, a mortgage real estate investment trust, focuses primarily on originating and acquiring transitional senior loans secured by commercial real estate (CRE) assets. It engages in the origination and purchase of credit investments related to CRE, including leveraged and unleveraged commercial real estate loans.