Financial Contrast: Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) & Braemar Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:BHR)

Franklin BSP Realty Trust (NYSE:FBRT) and Braemar Hotels & Resorts (NYSE:BHR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

59.9% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.8% of Braemar Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Franklin BSP Realty Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Braemar Hotels & Resorts shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Braemar Hotels & Resorts has a beta of 1.96, suggesting that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	53.82%	14.32%	3.20%
Braemar Hotels & Resorts	-3.65%	-8.43%	-1.20%

Dividends

Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.9%. Braemar Hotels & Resorts pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.3%. Franklin BSP Realty Trust pays out 107.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Braemar Hotels & Resorts pays out -17.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	0	0	3	1	3.25
Braemar Hotels & Resorts	0	2	0	0	2.00

Franklin BSP Realty Trust currently has a consensus target price of $14.75, indicating a potential upside of 13.46%. Braemar Hotels & Resorts has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential downside of 8.76%. Given Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Franklin BSP Realty Trust is more favorable than Braemar Hotels & Resorts.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Franklin BSP Realty Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin BSP Realty Trust	$263.95 million	4.03	$145.21 million	$1.32	9.85
Braemar Hotels & Resorts	$739.34 million	0.25	-$27.02 million	($1.12)	-2.45

Franklin BSP Realty Trust has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Braemar Hotels & Resorts. Braemar Hotels & Resorts 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 Braemar Hotels & Resorts on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Braemar Hotels & Resorts

Braemar Hotels & Resorts is a conservatively capitalized REIT that invests primarily in high RevPAR, full-service luxury hotels and resorts. We are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BHR and are externally-advised by Ashford (NYSE American: AINC).