MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) Receives $12.00 Consensus PT from Analysts

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $12.00.

Separately, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $12.50 target price on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Thursday.

MFA Financial Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:MFA opened at $10.43 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $11.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.71. The stock has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.08 and a beta of 2.10. MFA Financial has a fifty-two week low of $8.41 and a fifty-two week high of $11.90.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $169.88 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.75 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 13.24% and a return on equity of 9.44%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.46 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that MFA Financial will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

MFA Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.42%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 350.00%.

Institutional Trading of MFA Financial

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of MFA. State Street Corp boosted its position in MFA Financial by 9.0% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,109,396 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,770,000 after acquiring an additional 835,717 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in MFA Financial by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,988,562 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $112,571,000 after purchasing an additional 42,419 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in MFA Financial by 6.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 8,987,615 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $89,157,000 after purchasing an additional 565,972 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in MFA Financial by 160.7% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,779,082 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $98,940,000 after purchasing an additional 5,411,692 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in MFA Financial by 2.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,951,627 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $19,956,000 after purchasing an additional 122,878 shares during the period. 65.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About MFA Financial

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.