Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) vs. Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) Critical Survey

Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) and Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.4% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 59.9% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.1% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	-5.93%	-1.69%	1.31%
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	20.49%	5.75%	1.18%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Franklin BSP Realty Trust, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	2	0	0	1	2.00
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	1	1	3	0	2.40

Altisource Portfolio Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 55.34%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 49.31%. Given Altisource Portfolio Solutions’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Altisource Portfolio Solutions is more favorable than Franklin BSP Realty Trust.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Franklin BSP Realty Trust”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	$170.98 million	0.34	$1.62 million	($0.99)	-5.20
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$270.07 million	2.19	$82.27 million	$0.51	15.10

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Altisource Portfolio Solutions. Altisource Portfolio Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Franklin BSP Realty Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Franklin BSP Realty Trust beats Altisource Portfolio Solutions on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altisource Portfolio Solutions

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. operates as an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through Servicer and Real Estate, and Origination segments. The Servicer and Real Estate segment offers property preservation, inspection, title insurance and settlement, real estate valuation, foreclosure trustee, and residential and commercial construction inspection and risk mitigation services. This segment provides Hubzu, an online real estate auction platform, as well as real estate auction, real estate brokerage, and asset management services; Equator, a software-as-a-service technology to manage real estate owned, short sales, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction processes; a vendor invoicing and payment system; RentRange, a single and multi-family rental data, analytics, and rent-based valuation solution; REALSynergy, a commercial loan servicing platform; and NestRange, an automated residential valuation model and analytics solution. The Origination segment offers loan fulfillment, certification and certification insurance services, management services. In addition, it provides Lendors One Loan Automation, a marketplace to order services and a tool to automate components of the loan manufacturing process; TrelixAI, a technology to manage the workflow and automate components of the loan fulfillment, pre and post close quality, and service transfer processes; and ADMS, a document management and data analytics delivery platform. The company serves financial institutions, government-sponsored enterprises, banks, asset managers, servicers, investors, property management firms, real estate brokerages, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, originators, and correspondent and private money lenders. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

About Franklin BSP Realty Trust

Benefit Street Partners operates as a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT). BSP earns income from investing in a leveraged portfolio of residential mortgage pass-through securities consisting almost exclusively of adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) securities issued and guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, either Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) or Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) (together, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs)), or by an agency of the federal government, Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae). BSP’s investment strategy focuses on managing a portfolio of residential mortgage investments consisting almost exclusively of ARM Agency Securities. As of December 31, 2012, the Company’s securities consisted of Agency Securities classified as available-for-sale and Residential mortgage securities classified as held-to-maturity.