Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE: ACRE) reported Q1 EPS of $0.23, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.26.

“Our first quarter’s results were in-line with our expectations and do not reflect our full potential due to our significant amount of undeployed capital available for future investment,” said Robert L. Rosen, Chairman of the Board and Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “Based on our capital availability and originations expectations, we expect to grow our current level of earnings in the second half of 2017, as we begin to benefit from the deployment of our available capital into predominately new floating rate loans. John and I would also like to welcome Jamie Henderson to our executive management team as President and Chief Investment Officer, and we look forward to his many contributions in the months and years ahead.”

“Market conditions are competitive but strong, and stable real estate fundamentals and significant undeployed private equity capital are supporting increased transaction activity,” said John Jardine, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “We have high quality assets in our pipeline and are pursuing attractive opportunities as illustrated by over $200 million in new term sheets executed for the month of April 2017 alone.”

“So far in 2017, we have increased our sources of financing by approximately $450 million in the aggregate, including a new $273 million securitization and an amended facility with Wells Fargo, which expands our borrowing capacity from $325 million to $500 million,” said Tae-Sik Yoon, Chief Financial Officer of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation. “Due to our strong balance sheet with modest leverage and diverse sources of liquidity, we believe we are well positioned to reach our earnings objectives as we further increase our investment portfolio and potentially benefit from higher interest rates.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Ares Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) click here.