California State Teachers Retirement System Purchases 1,503 Shares of Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC)

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) by 2.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,503 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.11% of Ellington Financial worth $904,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EFC. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ellington Financial by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,914,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $112,734,000 after acquiring an additional 97,749 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ellington Financial by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,642,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,418,000 after purchasing an additional 62,439 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Ellington Financial by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,131,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,557,000 after purchasing an additional 59,557 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Ellington Financial by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,321,031 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,341,000 after buying an additional 5,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ellington Financial by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,066,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,194,000 after buying an additional 32,813 shares during the period. 50.18% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EFC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Ellington Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $13.75 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Ellington Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 16th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $14.50 target price on shares of Ellington Financial in a research note on Friday, July 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.55.

Ellington Financial Stock Performance

Shares of EFC opened at $13.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $909.39 million, a P/E ratio of 30.39 and a beta of 1.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 12.26, a current ratio of 43.02 and a quick ratio of 43.02. Ellington Financial Inc. has a 1 year low of $10.81 and a 1 year high of $14.98. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.87.

Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $24.66 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.55 million. Ellington Financial had a net margin of 42.05% and a return on equity of 12.65%. On average, equities analysts expect that Ellington Financial Inc. will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ellington Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.46%. Ellington Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 409.09%.

Ellington Financial Profile

Ellington Financial Inc, through its subsidiary, Ellington Financial Operating Partnership LLC, acquires and manages mortgage-related, consumer-related, corporate-related, and other financial assets in the United States. The company acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by prime jumbo, Alt-A, manufactured housing, and subprime residential mortgage loans; RMBS for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the U.S.