Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Has $105,000 Stock Holdings in MFA Financial, Inc. $MFA

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd decreased its stake in MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) by 71.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,100 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 28,307 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in MFA Financial were worth $105,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 5.8% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 507,580 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $5,208,000 after acquiring an additional 27,890 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in MFA Financial by 20.0% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 49,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 8,263 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in MFA Financial in the 1st quarter worth about $131,000. Bailard Inc. acquired a new position in MFA Financial in the 1st quarter worth about $443,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 830,830 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $8,524,000 after purchasing an additional 125,328 shares in the last quarter. 65.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MFA shares. Wall Street Zen raised MFA Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Jones Trading reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Monday, August 11th. JMP Securities decreased their target price on shares of MFA Financial from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of MFA Financial from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, MFA Financial presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.10.

MFA Financial Stock Up 2.7%

Shares of MFA Financial stock opened at $9.22 on Monday. MFA Financial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $7.85 and a 12-month high of $11.68. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $9.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $946.09 million, a P/E ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 1.73.

MFA Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 15.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 169.41%.

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.