AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) and ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) Head-To-Head Comparison

AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE:MITT) and ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for AG Mortgage Investment Trust and ARMOUR Residential REIT, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	0	3	5	0	2.63
ARMOUR Residential REIT	1	2	2	0	2.20

AG Mortgage Investment Trust currently has a consensus target price of $9.17, indicating a potential upside of 17.13%. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a consensus target price of $18.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.27%. Given AG Mortgage Investment Trust’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AG Mortgage Investment Trust is more favorable than ARMOUR Residential REIT.

Dividends

AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 12.3%. ARMOUR Residential REIT pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.2%. AG Mortgage Investment Trust pays out 240.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ARMOUR Residential REIT pays out 150.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AG Mortgage Investment Trust has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. ARMOUR Residential REIT is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

27.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of ARMOUR Residential REIT shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of AG Mortgage Investment Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of ARMOUR Residential REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares AG Mortgage Investment Trust and ARMOUR Residential REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	6.71%	14.93%	0.59%
ARMOUR Residential REIT	27.43%	15.39%	1.65%

Volatility & Risk

AG Mortgage Investment Trust has a beta of 1.66, suggesting that its share price is 66% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ARMOUR Residential REIT has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AG Mortgage Investment Trust and ARMOUR Residential REIT”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AG Mortgage Investment Trust	$480.33 million	0.52	$48.67 million	$0.40	19.57
ARMOUR Residential REIT	$800.42 million	2.75	$322.69 million	$1.92	9.24

ARMOUR Residential REIT has higher revenue and earnings than AG Mortgage Investment Trust. ARMOUR Residential REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AG Mortgage Investment Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

ARMOUR Residential REIT beats AG Mortgage Investment Trust on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AG Mortgage Investment Trust

AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. operates as a residential mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States. Its investment portfolio includes residential investments, including non-agency loans, agency-eligible loans, re-and non-performing loans, and non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as commercial loans and commercial mortgage-backed securities. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust for federal income tax purposes. It generally would not be subject to federal corporate income taxes if it distributes at least 90% of its taxable income to its stockholders. AG Mortgage Investment Trust, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is based in New York, New York.

About ARMOUR Residential REIT

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the United States. Its securities portfolio primarily consists of the United States Government-sponsored entity's (GSE) and the Government National Mortgage Administration's issued or guaranteed securities backed by fixed rate, hybrid adjustable rate, and adjustable-rate home loans; and unsecured notes and bonds issued by the GSE and the United States treasuries, as well as money market instruments. The company has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust. As a result, it would not be subject to corporate income tax on that portion of its net income that is distributed to shareholders. ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Vero Beach, Florida.