We recently published a list of Why These 15 Real Estate Stocks Are Surging In 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where ACRES Commercial Realty Corp (NYSE:ACR) stands against other real estate stocks that are surging in 2025.
For years, real estate stocks have been a source of anxiety for investors due to the scars of the Great Recession. That crisis has led to lingering skepticism, and many see real estate as a no-go zone today due to GDP growth turning negative quarter-over-quarter and expectations of a recession. Investors fear that a recession could drag these stocks down once more.
However, these companies have learned from the Great Recession, and some of them have delivered stellar gains so far. It is a good idea to keep an eye on the winners, as they could outperform during market downturns.
Even during bear markets, there are pockets of the market that perform exceptionally well. For example, I identified 15 Healthcare Stocks that are up the Most in 2025 in another article
Methodology
For this article, I screened the best-performing real estate stocks year-to-date.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A close-up of a person signing a loan agreement, emphasising safety and legality of this company’s fixed & floating rate loan services.
ACRES Commercial Realty Corp (NYSE:ACR)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 5
ACRES Commercial Realty Corp (NYSE:ACR) is a real estate investment trust that originates, holds, and manages commercial real estate mortgage loans and equity investments, focusing on middle-market properties across the United States.
The stock has climbed sharply in 2025, largely due to a series of deliberate strategic moves and improved portfolio quality. The most significant catalyst was the company’s Q4 2024 results, which showed $4.1 million in net income and a $0.52 per share diluted profit, boosted by a $7.5 million gain on property sales. Management outlined an ambitious plan to grow the loan portfolio from $1.5 billion to $1.8–$2.0 billion by the end of 2025, targeting resilient sectors like multifamily, self-storage, and hospitality.
In Q1 2025, ACRES took a $0.7 million charge from selling a non-performing Orlando hotel loan, which improved its overall portfolio risk rating and signaled a focus on higher-quality assets. The company also announced a $2.3 million share repurchase at a steep discount to book value and authorized an additional $5 million buyback. ACRES is actively recycling capital by selling non-core assets, including a Pennsylvania office property and a student housing development with strong pre-leasing, to fund higher-yielding loans.
The consensus price target of $22 implies 15.67% upside.
ACR stock is up 18.64% year-to-date.
Overall, ACR ranks 9th on our list of real estate stocks that are surging in 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of ACR, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ACR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
