Rait Financial Trust (RAS) has reported 142.44 percent jump in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $24.92 million, or $0.17 a share in the quarter, compared with $10.28 million, or $0.02 a share for the same period last year.    

Revenue during the quarter plunged 32.74 percent to $35.74 million from $53.15 million in the previous year period.

Cost of revenue dropped 10.61 percent or $1.82 million during the quarter to $15.32 million. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 1062 basis points over the previous year period to 57.13 percent.

Total expenses were $59.21 million for the quarter, up 6.39 percent or $3.56 million from year-ago period. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 65.65 percent as compared to a negative 4.72 percent for the previous year period.

Operating loss for the quarter was $23.47 million, compared with an operating loss of $2.51 million in the previous year period.      

"Over the course of the year we have made significant progress toward our strategic goal of focusing on our core commercial real estate lending business and we look forward to carrying that momentum into 2017," said Scott Davidson, RAIT’s chief executive officer. "We made a number of strategic decisions around, and took actions to further the aim of developing a sustainable platform for growth, including the monetization of our IRT investments, property sales and de-leveraging. As we continue to divest non-lending assets, we are also committed to the sale of Urban Retail which should result in additional cost reductions as well as further organizational simplicity. We will continue our focus on expense reduction while concentrating on our core commercial real estate lending activities. We are confident that we are pursuing the right strategy to position RAIT to grow long-term shareholder value."

Net receivables were at $36.27 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 23.39 percent or $11.07 million from year-ago.

Investments stood at $1,280.28 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 20.31 percent or $326.20 million from year-ago.

Total assets plunged 45.88 percent or $2,040.45 million to $2,406.84 million on Dec. 31, 2016. On the other hand, total liabilities were at $1,947.49 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 46.16 percent or $1,669.67 million from year-ago.

Return on assets was negative at 0.53 percent in the quarter against a positive 0.48 percent in the last year period. At the same time, return on equity moved up 389 basis points to 4.13 percent in the quarter.