Critical Contrast: New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ:NYMTM) and Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI)

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance (NYSE:ARI) and New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ:NYMTM) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance and New York Mortgage Trust, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance	1	3	2	0	2.17
New York Mortgage Trust	0	0	0	0	0.00

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance currently has a consensus target price of $11.33, indicating a potential upside of 65.69%. Given Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance is more favorable than New York Mortgage Trust.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance and New York Mortgage Trust”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance	$271.59 million	3.24	$126.72 million	$0.80	8.55
New York Mortgage Trust	$273.96 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance has higher earnings, but lower revenue than New York Mortgage Trust.

Profitability

This table compares Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance and New York Mortgage Trust’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance	55.49%	7.39%	1.58%
New York Mortgage Trust	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

54.4% of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 14.6%. New York Mortgage Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.97 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance pays out 125.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance beats New York Mortgage Trust on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) that originates, acquires, invests in, and manages commercial first mortgage loans, subordinate financings, and other commercial real estate-related debt investments in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. It is qualified as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income taxes, if the company distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is based in New York, New York.

About New York Mortgage Trust

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. acquires, invests in, finances, and manages mortgage-related single-family and multi-family residential assets in the United States. Its targeted investments include residential loans, including business purpose loans; structured multi-family property investments, such as preferred equity in, and mezzanine loans to owners of multi-family properties; non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS); agency RMBS; commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS); single-family rental properties; and other mortgage, residential housing, and credit-related assets. The company also qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.