Almitas Capital LLC Buys Shares of 77,440 MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA)

Almitas Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 77,440 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock, valued at approximately $789,000. Almitas Capital LLC owned about 0.08% of MFA Financial as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of MFA. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in MFA Financial by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,895,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $19,317,000 after purchasing an additional 60,261 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 902.9% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 374,481 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $4,764,000 after buying an additional 337,142 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,223,112 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $12,464,000 after buying an additional 177,067 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in MFA Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $428,000. Finally, GraniteShares Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in MFA Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,484,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MFA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of MFA Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $12.50 to $12.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $14.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.60.

MFA Financial Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of MFA opened at $9.80 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 1.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $9.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.58. MFA Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $7.85 and a 1 year high of $13.45.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $50.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.06 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 16.47% and a return on equity of 9.61%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 EPS for the current year.

MFA Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 14.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from MFA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 177.78%.

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.