Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Buys 30,915 Shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. $ARR

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. (NYSE:ARR) by 38.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 112,123 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 30,915 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in ARMOUR Residential REIT were worth $1,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,995,105 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $179,207,000 after purchasing an additional 3,147,068 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 365.7% during the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,495,203 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $37,278,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959,447 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 22.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,855,148 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $27,716,000 after purchasing an additional 338,134 shares during the period. UBS Group AG grew its stake in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,154,875 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $20,430,000 after buying an additional 45,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 29.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,149,610 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $17,175,000 after buying an additional 261,315 shares in the last quarter. 54.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on ARR shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. JonesTrading cut their target price on ARMOUR Residential REIT from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $18.00 target price (up from $17.50) on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in a report on Friday, April 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ARMOUR Residential REIT has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.50.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Trading Up 2.0%

ARR stock opened at $16.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $17.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.42. ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.98 and a 12 month high of $19.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.80 and a beta of 1.39.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $70.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $155.79 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a net margin of 27.43% and a return on equity of 15.39%. As a group, equities analysts predict that ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc. will post 2.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 17.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. ARMOUR Residential REIT’s payout ratio is presently 150.00%.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Company Profile

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) is a mortgage real estate investment trust that was formed in 2008 to acquire and manage a portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). The company’s investments are primarily agency-sponsored and agency-guaranteed RMBS issued by U.S. government-sponsored enterprises, along with credit risk transfer securities and select non-agency residential and multifamily RMBS. By focusing on high-quality mortgage assets, ARMOUR Residential REIT seeks to generate stable income and preserve capital through diversified exposure to the U.S.