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

Two Harbors Investments Corp (NYSE:TWO) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 6,225 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 509% compared to the average volume of 1,023 put options.

Institutional Trading of Two Harbors Investments

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TWO. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Two Harbors Investments during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in Two Harbors Investments by 695.6% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 3,421 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 2,991 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 34.5% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,825 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 981 shares during the last quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Two Harbors Investments in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Two Harbors Investments by 456.0% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,465 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 4,482 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on TWO. UBS Group lowered Two Harbors Investments from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Maxim Group lowered Two Harbors Investments from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Two Harbors Investments from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Zacks Research lowered Two Harbors Investments from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Two Harbors Investments in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $12.88.

Two Harbors Investments Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:TWO opened at $11.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.32 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.51. 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 earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $182.18 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of ($15.44) million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Two Harbors Investments will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Two Harbors Investments Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.0%. Two Harbors Investments’s payout ratio is currently -27.81%.

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.