Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance
Through the investors’ lenses
1 of 1 cleared2 of 2 criteria
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 2/2
| Measure | REFI | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | — | positive | — |
| Return on equity | 11.7% | US median 2.8% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | 0.16x | US median 0.57x | ✓ |
| Operating margin | — | US median 3.1% | — |
Passes 2 of 2. These are the measures Warren Buffett published, applied to Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance’s own figures — their criteria, not their view of this company. What he looks at, and why →
Funds from operations is not shown for this company. It cannot be computed from what this company files — the inputs are absent from its XBRL, not zero. The figure marked in the table is operating cash flow instead.
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 111.9% | whyDepressed by depreciation on buildings that are not losing value. |
| Operating cash flow | 152.3% | whyAbsorbs working-capital swings that earnings do not. |
No free cash flow figure is shown. This company does not report the inputs for it in its XBRL filings — capital expenditure, in particular, is often folded into a single investing total rather than tagged on its own. The figure is absent from the filings, not zero, and inventing one from a balance-sheet movement would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Spread between highest and lowest: 40.4 percentage points. Same filings, different denominators.
Coverage rating 39 / 100 — Strained. ? Peer standing · not rankedDirection 30/30Stability 19/20 Capped because the dividend exceeds what the basis that applies can fund.
Operating cash flow payout, last 4 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 152.3% |
| 2024-12-31 | 179.8% |
| 2023-12-31 | 137.7% |
| 2022-12-31 | 165.7% |
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $1.88 ÷ diluted EPS $1.68
- Operating cash flow — dividends paid $43.8m ÷ operating cash flow $28.8m
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-03-12 · accession 0001193125-26-103027
Every one is public at sec.gov and free to check. That is the point — you should not have to take our word for any of it.
Caveats on this company
- FFO not derivable (missing net income or real-estate depreciation) — REIT page not publishable
Computed by an open pipeline reading SEC XBRL directly. If any number here looks wrong to you, tell us — that is more useful to us than agreement.
What the operating cash flow payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated strained · when it files.
Who else looks like this
Every figure above is computed from Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance’s own filing, and every company here is measured the same way. Screen all of them on any of these twelve measures, or on the rules two investors published — free, and nothing you screen leaves your browser.
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