About Sturnus Ratings

Our Mission

Sturnus Ratings was built to solve a specific problem: the three highest-yielding publicly traded investment structures — Business Development Companies (BDCs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), and Mortgage REITs (mREITs) — each require a distinct analytical framework that most general-purpose financial platforms do not provide. Standard stock screeners surface price-to-earnings ratios that are meaningless for these asset classes. General financial news sites rarely dig into Net Asset Value coverage, Funds From Operations per share trends, or non-accrual rates. Most individual investors who buy income securities are doing so without the quantitative foundation that institutional analysts take for granted.

Sturnus Ratings exists to close that gap. We aggregate audited financial data directly from SEC filings, compute the sector-specific metrics that actually matter for valuation and dividend sustainability analysis, and present that data in a clean, comparable format alongside systematic quantitative reports. Our goal is not to tell investors what to buy or sell — it is to ensure they have the same quality of information that professional analysts use when they assess these companies.

Our Coverage Universe

We cover three distinct sectors of the income-focused investment landscape, each of which has its own regulatory structure, tax treatment, and analytical requirements:

Business Development Companies (BDCs)

BDCs were created by the Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980 as a mechanism to channel investment into small and mid-sized U.S. companies that do not have access to public capital markets. A BDC is a closed-end fund regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is required to distribute at least 90% of its investment income to shareholders to maintain its pass-through tax status. In exchange for this distribution requirement, BDCs pay no corporate income tax on qualifying distributed income.

BDCs primarily provide debt financing — senior secured loans, subordinated debt, and mezzanine debt — to private companies, typically in exchange for floating-rate interest income. They are required to maintain a minimum asset coverage ratio (currently 150%, reduced from 200% under the Small Business Credit Availability Act of 2018). The key valuation metric for a BDC is Net Asset Value (NAV) per share, which represents the fair value of the portfolio net of liabilities. The key profitability metric is Net Investment Income (NII) per share, which measures the income generated by the portfolio after expenses. Because BDC dividends are paid from NII, NII coverage — the ratio of NII to dividends declared — is the single most important indicator of dividend sustainability.

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

Equity REITs own and operate income-producing real estate — office buildings, shopping centres, industrial facilities, data centres, residential apartments, healthcare properties, and more. Like BDCs, REITs are required to distribute at least 90% of their taxable income to avoid corporate income tax. They were established under the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 1960 to give retail investors access to large-scale, income-producing real estate investments.

The most important metric for equity REIT analysis is Funds From Operations (FFO), which adjusts net income by adding back depreciation and amortisation (D&A) charges that reduce GAAP earnings but do not represent actual cash outflows for real property. Many analysts further refine this to Adjusted FFO (AFFO) by subtracting recurring capital expenditure requirements. Valuation for equity REITs is typically expressed as Price-to-FFO (P/FFO), analogous to the Price-to-Earnings ratio for ordinary stocks, and as cap rate analysis on the underlying property portfolios. Occupancy rates and same-store Net Operating Income (NOI) growth are also critical operational metrics tracked on Sturnus Ratings.

Mortgage REITs (mREITs)

Mortgage REITs — also called mREITs — do not own physical real estate; they invest in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), primarily agency MBS guaranteed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Ginnie Mae. Their income derives from the net interest margin (NIM): the spread between the yield on their MBS portfolio and the cost of the short-term borrowing they use to fund it, which typically involves repurchase agreements (repos). Because of this leverage model, mREITs are highly sensitive to interest rate movements and changes in the shape of the yield curve.

The primary valuation anchor for an mREIT is Book Value per share — the net equity of the portfolio, which fluctuates with changes in MBS prices (and therefore inversely with interest rates). The earnings metric most relevant to dividend sustainability is Distributable Earnings per share, which adjusts for realised and unrealised gains and losses on the portfolio to present the true cash-generative capacity of the business. Sturnus Ratings tracks Book Value, Distributable Earnings, and historical dividend patterns for every mREIT in our coverage universe.

Our Quantitative Valuation Framework

All data on Sturnus Ratings is sourced from primary regulatory filings: 10-K annual reports, 10-Q quarterly reports, and 8-K current reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) via the EDGAR system. No estimates or consensus figures are used as a substitute for reported numbers. Every earnings data point is derived directly from audited financial statements.

Our valuation framework computes the following metrics for each company:

• NAV per Share (BDC): Total net assets from the balance sheet divided by shares outstanding. We track NAV coverage — price divided by NAV — to flag premium and discount conditions.
• NII per Share (BDC): Net Investment Income from the income statement divided by weighted average shares outstanding. NII coverage of the dividend is the primary dividend sustainability indicator for BDCs.
• FFO per Share (REIT): Net income plus depreciation and amortisation, less gains on property sales, divided by diluted shares. We also compute P/FFO (current price divided by annualised FFO).
• Occupancy Rate (REIT): Reported percentage of leasable space that is occupied. A sustained decline in occupancy is one of the most reliable leading indicators of FFO pressure.
• Book Value per Share (mREIT): Net equity from the balance sheet divided by shares outstanding. Tracked quarterly against price to compute the Price-to-Book ratio.
• Distributable Earnings per Share (mREIT): Reported distributable or undistributed earnings, adjusted to exclude mark-to-market gains and losses. Compared against the dividend to assess coverage.
• Dividend History & Frequency: Complete ex-dividend and pay-date history, categorised by dividend type (regular monthly/quarterly/semiannual/annual, special, supplemental). Annualised yield is computed using closing price at each ex-dividend date.
• Risk Metrics: Annualised price volatility (standard deviation of daily returns × √252) and Sharpe Ratio for trailing 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year periods, using a configurable risk-free rate baseline.

Systematic Fundamental Reports

In addition to the quantitative data tables, Sturnus Ratings produces Systematic Fundamental Reports for companies in our coverage universe. These reports are generated from verified SEC filing data and audited quarterly financial statements and are designed to present a structured synthesis of the key metrics that determine a company's financial health and dividend sustainability. The reports follow a consistent analytical template across all sectors, covering: portfolio composition, earnings trend, dividend history, NAV/FFO/Book Value trajectory, leverage and coverage ratios, and a risk narrative.

These reports are explicitly not buy/sell recommendations. They are educational summaries of publicly available financial data, structured to reduce the time required for an investor to form their own informed view. All investments carry substantial risk, and no document on this platform constitutes financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Please read our full Disclaimer before using any content from this site.

Platform Operator

Sturnus Ratings is operated as an independent financial data and education platform. The platform is registered and operated within the European Union and is subject to EU data protection law (GDPR). For support, data corrections, or any questions about the platform, please use our contact form. We do not publish a public support email address to avoid spam; all support requests are handled exclusively through the contact form.

Methodology & Research Standards

All quantitative data on Sturnus Ratings is processed according to a consistent, documented methodology. The pipeline for each metric is as follows:

1. Source retrieval: Raw financial data is extracted from SEC EDGAR filings — specifically 10-K annual reports and 10-Q quarterly reports. These are the definitive, audited financial disclosures that every U.S.-listed public company is legally required to file. For dividend data, 8-K current reports and company press releases are used and cross-referenced against EDGAR.
2. Extraction & normalisation: Key financial line items — NAV, NII, FFO, Distributable Earnings, shares outstanding, occupancy, leverage ratios — are extracted from the standardised sections of each filing (the Consolidated Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Management Discussion & Analysis). Values are normalised to per-share figures using weighted average diluted shares as reported.
3. Verification: Extracted values are cross-checked against the prior period's comparative data (which all SEC filers are required to include) to catch transcription errors. Any discrepancy triggers a manual review against the original filing PDF. Restatements are applied retroactively to all affected periods.
4. Metric computation: Derived metrics (NII coverage ratio, NAV premium/discount, P/FFO, annualised dividend yield, annualised price volatility, Sharpe Ratio) are computed from verified base data using documented formulas. The risk-free rate used for Sharpe Ratio computation is configurable and disclosed on each company's risk metrics page.
5. Systematic Fundamental Reports: Written analysis reports are generated using a structured analytical template applied to the verified quarterly data. The template covers: portfolio composition and sector exposure, earnings trend over 4–8 quarters, dividend history and coverage analysis, balance sheet and leverage, and a risk narrative. These reports are educational summaries, not investment recommendations.
6. Update cadence: Earnings data is updated within 5 business days of each company's 10-Q or 10-K filing date. Dividend data is updated as announcements are made. Price data is updated daily. Systematic reports are updated after each quarterly data refresh.

Data Sources & Transparency

Sturnus Ratings is committed to full transparency about data provenance. All financial metrics are sourced directly from:

• SEC EDGAR filings (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K) — the definitive public record for U.S.-listed companies
• Company-published press releases and investor relations supplements, cross-referenced against EDGAR filings
• Daily closing price data from market data providers

Where a company restates a figure, we update our records to reflect the restated amount and note the change. Data quality is reviewed on an ongoing basis; however, we cannot guarantee that every figure is free of error. Users are encouraged to verify key figures against the original SEC filings available at EDGAR before making any decision.

Contact & Feedback

We welcome feedback on data accuracy, coverage requests, and platform improvements. Please use our contact form to get in touch.

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Sturnus Ratings is an educational research tool. Nothing on this platform constitutes financial or investment advice. All investments carry risk. Please read our full Disclaimer before using any content on this site.