LPL Financial LLC Buys 65,058 Shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA)

LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) by 27.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 297,873 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,058 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.29% of MFA Financial worth $3,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MFA. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in MFA Financial by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 124,317 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,267,000 after acquiring an additional 29,584 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 84,502 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 28,348 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,223,112 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,464,000 after purchasing an additional 177,067 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 10.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,006,842 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $10,260,000 after purchasing an additional 97,945 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of MFA Financial in the fourth quarter worth $633,000. Institutional investors own 65.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MFA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of MFA Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $12.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Jones Trading reissued a “hold” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $10.00 price objective on shares of MFA Financial and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $9.50 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, JMP Securities reduced their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.07.

MFA Financial Stock Performance

MFA opened at $9.71 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $996.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of $9.46 and a 200 day moving average of $9.79. MFA Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $7.85 and a fifty-two week high of $13.45.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $61.28 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $59.50 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 17.62% and a return on equity of 8.61%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

MFA Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 31st. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 14.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 165.52%.

MFA Financial Profile

MFA Financial, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate investment trust in the United States. It invests in residential mortgage securities, including non-agency mortgage-backed securities, agency MBS, and credit risk transfer securities; residential whole loans, including purchased performing loans, purchased credit deteriorated, and non-performing loans; and mortgage servicing rights related assets.