Franklin BSP Realty Trust (FBRT) Stock: Dividend, Book Value and Loans 2026

The dividend against three kinds of earnings, ten quarters

FBRT publishes its non-GAAP earnings two ways, “Distributable Earnings” and Distributable Earnings “before realized losses,” and states both per share on a “fully converted” count that assumes its Series H preferred and the NewPoint OP units become common shares. The difference matters here: in the first quarter of 2025, for example, the first number was $(0.12) and the second $0.31, because $38.2 million of losses on loans and foreclosed property were booked in Distributable Earnings in that quarter after being reserved earlier under GAAP. The company says it will recognize credit and property losses in Distributable Earnings only when they are deemed non-recoverable, which is “generally at the time a loan is repaid” or when foreclosed property is sold.

Sources: the earnings-release 8-Ks for each quarter (accessions in the CSV). Q4 2024 is the full-year figure less the first nine months (full year $0.92 against $0.62, our arithmetic). Coverage for the last four quarters is the company's own (61%, 34%, 45%, 127%); the others are our division of the per-share figures and match the company's stated 115%, 87% and (28%) for the first three quarters of 2024. Dividing the rounded $0.25 by $0.20 gives 125%.

Full-year figures tell the same story with fewer moving parts. Distributable Earnings per fully converted share were $1.92 in 2023, $0.92 in 2024 and $0.49 in 2025; GAAP per fully converted share was $1.42, $0.87 and $0.68; the dividend was $1.42 in each year. Company-stated dividend coverage was 100% (GAAP) and 135% (Distributable Earnings) for 2023 and 61% and 65% for 2024. Before realized losses, 2024 and 2025 earned $1.38 and $0.99 a share, $2.37 together (our arithmetic), still short of the $2.84 paid.

The reset to $0.20: what the company said

The fourth-quarter 2025 release carried the explanation. The CEO said: “In order to stabilize our book value and match the earnings power of our company to distributions, our Board reset the quarterly dividend to $0.20.” Earlier in the same paragraph: “This has led to over-distributing capital to investors.” And: “Our earnings power to support a meaningfully higher dividend remains unchanged.” The board reset the quarterly common dividend from $0.355 to $0.20 for the first quarter of 2026, payable around April 10, 2026. Cash paid in common distributions in the first half fell to $44.9 million from $59.2 million (the 10-Q), although share buybacks and the OP units move the count each quarter.

Two numbers frame the yield. For Q1 2026 the company stated an 8.7% yield on its trading price as of April 28, 2026; for Q2 it stated 10.2% as of July 27, 2026, against 5.6% on book value. Back-solving $0.80 from those yields gives roughly $9.20 and $7.84 a share (our arithmetic); the 10-K's last sale price was $8.88 on February 19, 2026. We do not quote a live price; check the exchange. The company's 10-K shows a cumulative total return of $94.11 for $100 invested at the October 19, 2021 listing through December 31, 2025, against $93.52 for the FTSE Mortgage REIT index and $157.75 for the S&P 1500.

Book value per share and the buybacks below it

Fully converted book value per share fell from $15.77 (December 31, 2023) to $14.15 (December 31, 2025), then recovered to $14.24 at June 30, 2026. The 10-Q also gives plain GAAP book value of $14.51 per share ($14.38 at December 31, 2025) and an adjusted fully converted figure of $14.74 that excludes $19.5 million of accumulated depreciation and adds back MSRs at fair value over carrying value ($26.2 million).

The recovery is largely buybacks. The board's program allows repurchases only “at prices below the most recently reported book value per share.” FBRT bought 1,371,073 shares in Q4 2025 at $10.48, 4,361,596 in Q1 2026 at $9.13 (adding $0.24 to book value per share) and 1,838,855 in Q2 at $8.70 (adding $0.11). In the first half of 2026 it retired 6,200,451 shares for $55.8 million, and common shares outstanding fell from 81,553,982 to 75,436,265. On July 28, 2026 the board made $50.0 million available through December 31, 2026. An ATM program of $200 million has never been used.

The offsetting supply is the NewPoint OP units. They became redeemable 12 months after issue on July 1, 2025, for cash or one common share each at the company's option. After June 30, 2026, holders redeemed 7,918,314 of the 8,385,951 units for shares (10-Q subsequent events). The fully converted book value already counts those units, so per-share book value does not change, but the share count that receives the $0.20 does rise by about a tenth.

A loan book of apartments: property type, region and vintage

By region at June 30, 2026: Southeast $1,733.7 million (39.9%), Southwest $1,332.9 million (30.7%), Mideast 9.1%, Far West 3.7%. The supplement puts Texas at 27%, Florida 15% and North Carolina 14% by state. 90% of the book is floating rate, 99% senior, and the weighted-average loan-to-value at origination is 64.2%. The weighted spread is 3.22% (effective yield 6.97%).

Office was 6% of the core portfolio in March 2024 and 1.3% now, so FBRT is not the office-loan story a larger peer is (compare Blackstone Mortgage Trust, where 17 of 26 rated 4 or 5 loans are offices). The multifamily share has gone the other way, from 75% to 79.8%, and the vintage matters: 77% of the book was originated after the 2022 rate increases and 23% before.

The book shrank. Principal fell from $5.24 billion at March 31, 2024 to $4.34 billion at June 30, 2026, down 17% (our arithmetic), and the average loan fell from $36 million to $25 million. The 10-Q's net interest income was $29.9 million in Q2 2026 against $41.0 million in Q2 2025. Gains on sales of $15.8 million (against $0.3 million) and net servicing revenue of $9.7 million made up part of the gap.

Risk ratings 4 and 5: eleven quarter-ends

The table reads from the rating tables in each 10-K or 10-Q (principal at par; the share is our arithmetic). FBRT's scale starts every new loan at 2, so no loan is rated 1 and the average of 2.4 is not comparable to a lender whose new loans start at 3. The path is clear in the count: six loans in the first quarter of 2024, a trough of three in September 2024 after $510 million of repayments, and 12 now, five of them rated 5. The allowance for credit losses was $80.5 million at June 30, 2024, fell to $38.3 million at the end of 2025 as $32.9 million of principal was charged off in 2025 and loans were repaid or foreclosed, and rose again to $54.5 million: $36.6 million general and $17.8 million specific, 1.3% of principal. The 10-Q gives the reason for the general increase as “worsening economic scenario projections used in our CECL model.”

The 12 watch-list loans, by property

The investor supplement lists each watch-list loan by collateral and place, without naming borrowers. Dates are the quarter the loan was made and the quarter of default, where there is one.

Two entries break the “2021 and 2022 legacy” description. The San Antonio loan made in the first quarter of 2024 is rated 4 and the Houston loan, made in the second quarter of 2025, is already in default (a fixed-rate loan; the supplement lists its purpose as “Other”). Even so, 87% of the rated 4 or 5 amortized cost ($375.2 million of $429.7 million) was originated in 2022 or earlier (our arithmetic). The 10-Q describes nine non-performing loans with an amortized cost of $344.2 million (five on non-accrual, four on cost recovery, one of the nine secured by the office property), up from seven and $214.0 million at December 31, 2025, and seven loans, $238.3 million, are 90 or more days past due.

Foreclosed property

Foreclosed positions are being sold faster than loans are being added. In Q2 2026 FBRT sold “the largest REO asset in the portfolio” and completed a foreclosure on a 297-unit Huntersville, North Carolina apartment property, where it booked a $9.7 million gain on the fair-value step-up. Besides the six foreclosure positions it has one investment-REO position of $115.2 million and five equity-method investments of $89.2 million. The 10-Q's REO held for investment ($164.6 million at June 30) is three properties: a Jeffersonville, Georgia industrial net-lease property bought in 2021 with an affiliate of the manager, a Portland, Oregon office and the Huntersville apartments; REO held for sale was $115.7 million, including a Denver office. Loans moved to REO were $197.4 million in 2025 and $56.5 million in the first half of 2026. On the multifamily property held for sale the six-month net loss was $4.5 million (10-Q).

NewPoint: what was promised and what the filings show

On March 10, 2025 FBRT announced it would buy NewPoint Holdings JV LLC, a Plano, Texas lender and servicer of multifamily, affordable and seniors housing loans. The release said NewPoint's servicing book of $54.7 billion would provide “a predictable and durable income stream,” gave the deal a path to “trade at a premium to book value,” and said it was expected to be accretive to GAAP earnings per share in the first half of 2026 and to fully converted Distributable Earnings per share in the second half of 2026. The deal closed July 1, 2025.

None of the second-half accretion test can be run yet: the company has not published one, and the second half of 2026 is not reported. What is visible is that first-half GAAP earnings per share are half of last year's, with NewPoint adding revenue and a compensation line ($21.0 million in Q2 2026) that did not exist before, and that the company's own yield figure implies a share price near 55% of fully converted book value (our arithmetic: $7.84 against $14.24), the gap the March 2025 release said the deal would help close. The Capstead Mortgage merger that listed FBRT on the NYSE on October 19, 2021 is mentioned in the 10-K only as one of two acquisitions in a risk factor; the problem loans the company describes are its own 2021 and 2022 bridge loans, not Capstead's.

Debt: CLOs, warehouse lines and leverage

Net debt-to-equity was 2.6x at June 30, 2026 (2.5x at December 31, 2025) and recourse net debt-to-equity 0.7x. The board's stated target range is one to three times book value of equity. Of $4.17 billion of debt, 71% is collateralized loan obligations, 19% warehouse lines and 4% unsecured debt; 79% of the core book's financing is not mark-to-market. The average cost of debt including financing costs was 6.2% in Q2 2026 (6.0% in Q1).

FL13 closed April 15, 2026: an $880.4 million securitization of which $778.1 million of notes were sold. Principal comes due on a fully extended basis at $365 million for the rest of 2026, $795 million in 2027, $892 million in 2028, $1,281 million in 2029, $593 million in 2030 and $417 million in 2031. Liquidity was $796.7 million, of which $136.3 million is cash (it was $1.5 billion at the end of 2023). Unfunded commitments to borrowers were $285.2 million. NewPoint's six warehouse and credit lines add $2.3 billion of capacity (our sum of the supplement's list).

The preferred stock and OP units ahead of and beside the common

For Series E holders, the cushion is visible in the quarter figures. Distributable Earnings of $28.3 million in Q2 2026 covered the $4.8 million quarterly Series E dividend 5.8 times, and GAAP net income of $16.3 million 3.4 times (our arithmetic). In Q4 2025, Distributable Earnings of $17.9 million were 3.7 times the dividend. The Series H pays the as-converted common dividend, which fell with it.

The manager, related-party deals and management turnover

FBRT is externally managed by Benefit Street Partners L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton). The fee is one-twelfth of 1.5% of stockholders' equity a month plus a performance fee of 15% of total return above 6% a year. Asset management and performance fees were $5.97 million in Q2 2026 and $12.0 million in the first half. The 10-Q also records:

• In the first quarter of 2026, FBRT bought 11 loans with $124.7 million of principal from an affiliate managed by the manager and assumed $99.6 million of repo debt on them.
• Loans to affiliates of the manager carried at $37.1 million at both December 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
• Joint ventures with affiliated funds: 79% of the Jeffersonville net-lease property, and 27.95% of a $44.0 million Gardena, California industrial property bought March 18, 2026, where an affiliated fund holds 62.05%.
• A referral agreement under which the manager pays NewPoint a fee for sending it floating-rate bridge loans.

Management: Richard Byrne was CEO from 2016 to February 2026. On February 10, 2026 the board named Michael Comparato CEO and Brian Buffone President. On September 15, 2026 Comparato resigned; the September 17 press release said he would “step back from day-to-day executive responsibilities to spend more time with his family” and become a senior advisor at the manager through 2027. Byrne, the chairman, was reappointed CEO on September 16, and CFO and COO Jerome Baglien was named Co-President. A putative securities class action against the company and certain officers was filed in the Eastern District of New York on February 26, 2026, and a related derivative complaint on May 8, 2026 is stayed; the company says both are without merit. We have not read the complaints and do not describe their allegations.

What changed after June 30, and what is next

The EDGAR list for FBRT shows, after the July 29 10-Q and earnings 8-K, only the September 17 leadership 8-K and a Schedule 13G/A on October 5. The OP-unit redemptions and the $50.0 million repurchase authorization are in the 10-Q's subsequent events. The Q3 2026 results were scheduled for October 28, 2026 after the market close with a call on October 29 at 9:00 a.m. ET, according to a press-release mirror dated October 7 (not an SEC filing). Last year the Q3 release was an 8-K on October 29, 2025 and the 10-Q followed November 5. Items to read when it arrives: the Q3 dividend declaration, Distributable Earnings per share against $0.20, the count of rated 4 and 5 loans against 12, the second-half NewPoint contribution, and share count after the OP-unit redemptions.

What a holder or reader can do with this

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. The questions the filings answer, in the order a holder of the common or the Series E would ask them:

• Pick one earnings line and stay with it. Dividend $0.20, Distributable Earnings $0.25, before realized losses $0.28, GAAP $0.12. The 44% cut moved the dividend under all four, and the Q2 quarter is one data point after three quarters below 100%.
• Read the 12 loans, not the average rating. A rating of 2.4 sits beside five loans rated 5 ($213.1 million) and nine non-performing loans ($344.2 million). Each 10-Q shows whether they were repaid, extended, foreclosed or moved to 5.
• Watch the share count. 75.4 million shares, 7.9 million new shares from OP-unit redemptions, 5.4 million that Series H can become by January 21, 2028, against buybacks at prices below book value.
• Check cash against Distributable Earnings. The first-half 2026 operating cash flow was $(5.7) million (10-Q), because loans held for sale and originations run through operations. Distributable Earnings is not cash flow.
• For Series E holders: the preference is $25.00 a share and Q2 cover was 5.8 times on Distributable Earnings; the ranking and redemption terms are in the articles supplementary, which we did not read.
• Related reading on this site: commercial mortgage REIT dividends and delinquencies puts FBRT beside eight peers; Blackstone Mortgage Trust is the office-heavy contrast; and the origin of the vehicle, as ARC Realty Finance Trust, is in what happened to American Realty Capital.

If a high-yield mortgage REIT is a large part of what you live on, the questions are about your whole position rather than this filing. The board reset the quarterly common dividend from $0.355 to $0.20 for the first quarter of 2026, which takes $1.42 a share a year to $0.80 at the current rate.

FAQ

All figures are from Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (CIK 1562528) SEC filings read on EDGAR on October 17, 2026: Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2026 (accession 0001562528-26-000024, filed July 29, 2026), March 31, 2026 (0001562528-26-000014), September 30, 2025 (0001562528-25-000041), June 30, 2025 (0001562528-25-000030), March 31, 2025 (0001562528-25-000019), September 30, 2024 (0001562528-24-000034), June 30, 2024 (0001562528-24-000025) and March 31, 2024 (0001562528-24-000016); Forms 10-K for 2025 (0001562528-26-000008) and 2024 (0001562528-25-000013); the earnings-release 8-Ks with investor supplements of February 14, 2024 (0001562528-24-000004) through July 29, 2026 (0001562528-26-000025); and the 8-Ks of March 10, 2025 (0001104659-25-022187), July 1, 2025 (0001104659-25-064751), January 21, 2026 (0001104659-26-005433), February 10, 2026 (0001104659-26-012725), April 20, 2026 (0001104659-26-045531) and September 17, 2026 (0001104659-26-108440). The October 28, 2026 results date comes from a press-release mirror (finviz.com, October 7, 2026), not an SEC filing. Coverage ratios, shares of principal, price-to-book, row sums and the Q4 2024 quarter (full year less nine months) are our arithmetic. FBRT defines Distributable Earnings itself and the measure is not comparable across companies. The share price is not quoted; the yields are the company's. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.