franklin bsp realty trust holds annual stockholder meeting

Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:FBRT), a $890 million market cap REIT currently trading near its 52-week low of $10.50, conducted its annual stockholder meeting on May 28, 2025, in New York. The meeting included several key votes, as reported in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The stockholders elected seven directors to the company’s board for one-year terms. The elected directors are Pat Augustine, Richard J. Byrne, Joe Dumars, Jamie Handwerker, Peter J. McDonough, Buford H. Ortale, and Elizabeth K. Tuppeny. Each director will serve until the 2026 annual meeting or until their successors are elected and qualified. According to InvestingPro, the company maintains strong liquidity with a current ratio of 1.51, indicating healthy short-term financial stability under the board’s oversight.

A proposal to amend the company’s Articles of Amendment and Restatement to eliminate supermajority voting requirements did not pass. The proposal required an affirmative vote from at least two-thirds of the shares but failed to achieve this threshold.

The stockholders approved the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) as the company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025. Additionally, an advisory vote on the compensation of the company’s named executive officers was also approved.

The meeting and its outcomes are detailed in the company’s SEC filing. Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc., a real estate investment trust, is headquartered in New York, with its common stock and 7.50% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols FBRT and FBRT PRE, respectively. The company offers an attractive dividend yield of ~13% and has maintained profitability with earnings per share of $0.67 over the last twelve months. InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently trading slightly above its Fair Value, with additional insights available in the comprehensive Pro Research Report, which provides deep-dive analysis of this and 1,400+ other US stocks.

In other recent news, Franklin BSP Realty Trust reported its first-quarter 2025 earnings, revealing an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.20, which did not meet the anticipated $0.28. Revenue also fell short of expectations, coming in at $50.11 million compared to the forecasted $52.21 million. The company is moving forward with its acquisition of NewPoint, expected to close in early Q3 2025, which is anticipated to enhance its lending capabilities in the multifamily sector. Despite the earnings miss, Franklin BSP Realty Trust remains committed to its strategic initiatives, with a strong focus on the multifamily sector, which accounted for 79% of its origination volume this quarter. Analysts have expressed concerns about the company’s ability to cover its dividend in the near term, particularly if market volatility persists or if real estate-owned (REO) sales slow. The firm is also addressing challenges related to its REO portfolio, which has impacted earnings. The company has indicated a potential revisit of dividend policies should these conditions continue. Franklin BSP Realty Trust’s management remains optimistic about the benefits of the NewPoint acquisition, which they believe will be accretive to distributable EPS by the second half of 2026.

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