Arbor Realty Trust (NYSE:ABR) Shares Climb 7.2% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Arbor Realty Trust (NYSE:ABR) traded up 7.2% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $2.73 and last traded at $2.7970. 628,861 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 4,357,515 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.61.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ABR has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research raised Arbor Realty Trust from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Arbor Realty Trust from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $7.00 to $5.50 in a report on Friday, July 17th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Arbor Realty Trust in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Arbor Realty Trust from $5.00 to $3.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Arbor Realty Trust from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $5.12.

Arbor Realty Trust Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $504.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.64 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 478.85 and a current ratio of 478.85. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.48.

Arbor Realty Trust (NYSE:ABR) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $117.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.75 million. Arbor Realty Trust had a return on equity of 7.38% and a net margin of 6.24%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Arbor Realty Trust will post 0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Arbor Realty Trust Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 25.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. Arbor Realty Trust’s dividend payout ratio is presently 971.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William Green bought 25,951 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 31st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $5.07 per share, with a total value of $131,571.57. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 231,369 shares in the company, valued at $1,173,040.83. This represents a 12.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Arbor Realty Trust

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Arbor Realty Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at $143,448,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Arbor Realty Trust during the 2nd quarter worth $7,702,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Arbor Realty Trust by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 951,200 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,334,000 after buying an additional 18,529 shares during the last quarter. Miller Value Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Arbor Realty Trust in the second quarter valued at about $3,312,000. Finally, Odyssean LLC boosted its stake in Arbor Realty Trust by 227.4% in the second quarter. Odyssean LLC now owns 570,598 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,093,000 after buying an additional 396,292 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.25% of the company’s stock.

Arbor Realty Trust Company Profile

Arbor Realty Trust, Inc is a real estate investment trust that provides financing for multifamily and other commercial real estate properties. The company originates, acquires, and invests in a range of structured finance products, including bridge loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity investments, and other real estate-related debt investments.

Through its lending platforms and subsidiaries, Arbor Realty Trust also provides agency lending services for multifamily properties. These activities include originating and servicing loans through programs associated with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the U.S.