Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, a specialty finance company, engages in the originating and investing in commercial real estate (CRE) loans and related investments in the United States. The company provides loan opportunities for the owners, operators, and sponsors of CRE properties. Its investments includes senior mortgage loans, subordinate debt, preferred equity products, mezzanine loans, and other CRE investments, such …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Strong Net Interest MarginNet interest margin proxy is strong (score 0.74).
Industry-Leading EfficiencyOperational efficiency is excellent (score 0.74).
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor ranks #22 of 49
scored companies in REIT - Mortgage by moat score — the top 45%.
The widest moat in the group is AGNC Investment Corp. - Deposit (AGNCM)
at 73/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near ACRE in REIT - Mortgage
How ACRE scores on the Lender Specialized defenses
Funding & Return Stability
Score 57
· 22% of the moat score
A lender without deposits buys all of its funding, so its first test is whether the business still earns a decent return when that funding gets dearer.
Lending Advantage
Score 79
· 18% of the moat score
Outside banking, a lending advantage usually comes from origination: a channel or a data edge that finds good borrowers more cheaply than rivals, or a niche such as subprime auto, student loans or agency mortgages where experience in underwriting and servicing is hard to copy.
Capital Strength
Score 42
· 20% of the moat score
Without deposit insurance or a central-bank backstop, equity is what keeps a lender in business when its lenders get nervous.
Cost Discipline
Score 57
· 16% of the moat score
Origination, servicing and collections are largely fixed-cost operations, so scale and automation decide how much of the spread survives to the bottom line.
Revenue Diversification
Score 34
· 14% of the moat score
A lender that earns only on the spread of one product is exposed to that product's cycle and to the market that funds it.
Risk Management
Score 62
· 10% of the moat score
Credit losses at a non-bank lender arrive late and all at once, and with borrowed funding they can turn into a liquidity problem in weeks.
What is Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor's moat score?
Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor (ACRE) scores 55 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #22 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage, the top 45%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 66 companies in REIT - Mortgage. Its strongest defense is Lending Advantage (79/100) and its weakest is Revenue Diversification (34/100).
How does Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor compare with other REIT - Mortgage companies?
Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor ranks #22 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage by moat score. The widest moat in REIT - Mortgage is AGNC Investment Corp. - Deposit (AGNCM) at 73/100. The companies ranked closest are Rithm Property Trust Inc. (RPT) at 56 just above it and AG Mortgage Investment Trust, I (MITT) at 54 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Lender Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 66 companies in REIT - Mortgage. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor scored with the Lender Specialized template?
Card and instalment lenders, mortgage originators and mortgage REITs make money the way a bank does, by earning more on what they lend than they pay for the money they lend, but they do not take deposits. They borrow in the debt markets instead: securitisations, warehouse lines, repo and bonds, money that has to be refinanced and repriced as rates move. The Lender template scores what decides whether such a business lasts: how well its returns hold up as funding costs change, what it lends against, how much equity stands behind the book, and whether it has been pricing credit honestly.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Ares Commercial Real Estate Cor?
The Lender Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and ACRE scores: Funding & Return Stability (57), Lending Advantage (79), Capital Strength (42), Cost Discipline (57), Revenue Diversification (34), Risk Management (62). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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