Two Harbors Investments Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:TWO)

Two Harbors Investments Corp (NYSE:TWO) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 7,434 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 1,115% compared to the average volume of 612 call options.

Insider Activity at Two Harbors Investments

In other Two Harbors Investments news, insider Rebecca B. Sandberg sold 27,370 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.43, for a total transaction of $312,839.10. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 156,718 shares in the company, valued at $1,791,286.74. This represents a 14.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO William Dellal sold 7,087 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.44, for a total transaction of $81,075.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 36,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $419,882.32. This represents a 16.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 129,389 shares of company stock worth $1,483,046 in the last quarter. 0.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Two Harbors Investments

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Two Harbors Investments by 490.7% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,583,939 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $38,599,000 after purchasing an additional 2,977,196 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investments in the 4th quarter valued at $23,886,000. Algebris UK Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investments during the third quarter worth $17,558,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investments during the fourth quarter worth $16,523,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Two Harbors Investments by 45.3% during the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 4,535,534 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $44,766,000 after buying an additional 1,415,062 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.19% of the company’s stock.

Two Harbors Investments Stock Up 4.1%

Shares of NYSE:TWO opened at $9.52 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $999.46 million, a P/E ratio of -1.95 and a beta of 1.18. Two Harbors Investments has a 12-month low of $8.78 and a 12-month high of $14.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Two Harbors Investments (NYSE:TWO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by ($0.04). Two Harbors Investments had a negative net margin of 109.90% and a positive return on equity of 12.00%. The company had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of ($15.44) million. Analysts predict that Two Harbors Investments will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TWO has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Two Harbors Investments from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group cut Two Harbors Investments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded Two Harbors Investments from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Two Harbors Investments in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Maxim Group cut Two Harbors Investments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $12.88.

About Two Harbors Investments

Two Harbors Investments Corp. is a mortgage real estate investment trust (mREIT) that primarily invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued or guaranteed by government-sponsored enterprises, as well as non-agency residential mortgage loans, mortgage servicing rights and credit risk transfer securities. The company seeks to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for its shareholders by employing leverage to enhance net interest income derived from its portfolio of high-quality fixed-income assets.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Two Harbors operates through a self-managed platform that combines portfolio management, risk-management and securitization expertise.