Adversity is less terrifying than hope: Ladder Capital Corp (LADR)

Ladder Capital Corp (NYSE: LADR) stock fell -1.47% on Thursday to $9.40 against a previous-day closing price of $9.54. With 0.5 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 0.86 million shares. The 52-week range on LADR shows that it touched its highest point at $11.71 and its lowest point at $8.50 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $11.50. With its current market cap of 1.20 billion, LADR has annualized dividend of $0.92 while the current yield stands at 9.79%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.92.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of LADR was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -2.79%, but this was up by 5.03% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -17.25% while six-month performance fell -13.44%. The stock lost -10.62% in the past year, while it has lost -6.37% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for LADR yields 1.16 with Next year EPS estimates of 1.25. For the next quarter, that number is 0.31. This implies an EPS growth rate of 149.10% for this year and -4.42% for next year.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 124.49 million LADR shares are outstanding with a float of 112.73 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 3.9 million, which was 3.07% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Brian Richard Harris as the firm’s Founder, CEO & Director, Ms. Pamela Lynn McCormack serves as its Founder, Pres & Director.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 61.89% of LADR’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 34.88% of LADR, in contrast to 28.13% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 21.56%. As the largest shareholder in LADR with 8.71% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 11,013,868 shares worth 11,013,868. A second-largest stockholder of LADR, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 8,539,562 shares, controlling over 6.75% of the firm’s shares. Jennison Associates LLC is the third largest shareholder in LADR, holding 5,325,318 shares or 4.21% stake. With a 2.78% stake in LADR, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 3,521,228 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund, which owns about 2.36% of LADR stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 2,985,738 shares valued at 27.92 million. PGIM Jennison Small Company Fund holds 2.01% of the stake in LADR, owning 2,539,116 shares worth 23.74 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for LADR since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With LADR analysts setting a high price target of $12.50 and a low target of $10.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $11.50. Based on these targets, LADR could surge 32.98% to reach the target high and rise by 6.38% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 22.34% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded LADR stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 6 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 240,567 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 10 while that of sell transactions has risen to 12 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 767,216 while 310,124 shares were sold.