Ladder Capital Corp LADR

Competitive advantage analysis · real-estate

Lender Specialized
Overall moat score
49/100
Developing

About Ladder Capital Corp

Ladder Capital Corp operates as an internally-managed real estate investment trust in the United States. It operates through three segments: Loans, Securities, and Real Estate. The Loans segment originates and acquires balance sheet loans that provide interim financing to borrowers seeking short-term capital for the acquisition or transition of commercial real estate; originates conduit loans, which are first mortgage loans … Full LADR analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Strong Equity Cushion Equity cushion is strong (score 0.65).
  • Disciplined Risk Management Risk management appears disciplined (asset quality score 0.60).

Key risks

  • Operational Inefficiency Operational efficiency lags peers (score 0.30).
  • Returns Squeezed by Funding Costs Returns are weak for a debt-funded lender (profitability score 0.32).

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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Funding & Return Stability

Moderate
57

Where LADR ranks in REIT - Mortgage

Ladder Capital Corp ranks #30 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage by moat score — the top 61%. The widest moat in the group is AGNC Investment Corp. - Deposit (AGNCM) at 73/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near LADR in REIT - Mortgage
# Company Moat score Rating
26 Sunrise Realty Trust, Inc. SUNS 50/100 Moderate
27 TPG RE Finance Trust, Inc. TRTX 50/100 Moderate
28 Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. BXMT 50/100 Moderate
29 Apollo Commercial Real Estate F ARI 50/100 Developing
30 Ladder Capital Corp LADR 49/100 Developing
31 Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. AOMR 48/100 Developing
32 Rithm Capital Corp. RITM 48/100 Developing
33 Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment CHMI 48/100 Developing
34 Chimera Investment Corporation CIM 46/100 Developing

See every Mortgage REITs company ranked by moat score →

How LADR 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 51 · 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 52 · 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 32 · 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 38 · 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 69 · 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.

How each Lender Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding LADR's moat

What is Ladder Capital Corp's moat score?

Ladder Capital Corp (LADR) scores 49 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as developing. It ranks #30 of 49 scored companies in REIT - Mortgage, the top 61%. 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 Risk Management (69/100) and its weakest is Cost Discipline (32/100).

How does Ladder Capital Corp compare with other REIT - Mortgage companies?

Ladder Capital Corp ranks #30 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 Apollo Commercial Real Estate F (ARI) at 50 just above it and Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc. (AOMR) at 48 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 Ladder Capital Corp 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 Ladder Capital Corp?

The Lender Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and LADR scores: Funding & Return Stability (57), Lending Advantage (51), Capital Strength (52), Cost Discipline (32), Revenue Diversification (38), Risk Management (69). 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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