Verition Fund Management LLC Buys Shares of 34,164 KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (NYSE:KREF)

Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. (NYSE:KREF) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 34,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $422,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 16,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 2,481 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust in the 2nd quarter worth $138,000. TrueMark Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust in the 2nd quarter worth $1,305,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust by 31.2% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 356,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,230,000 after buying an additional 84,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust in the 2nd quarter worth $427,000. Institutional investors own 70.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KREF has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $12.00 to $11.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $12.50 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.50 to $13.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their target price on KKR Real Estate Finance Trust from $14.00 to $13.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.75.

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Stock Performance

Shares of KREF stock opened at $11.46 on Friday. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.71 and a 1-year high of $14.12. The company has a current ratio of 277.63, a quick ratio of 277.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.75. The company has a market capitalization of $796.96 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.18 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.04.

KKR Real Estate Finance Trust (NYSE:KREF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.03. KKR Real Estate Finance Trust had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 0.40%. The business had revenue of $140.15 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that KKR Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.