Short Interest in Ellington Credit Company (NYSE:EARN) Declines By 43.8%

Ellington Credit Company (NYSE:EARN) saw a large drop in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totaling 763,352 shares, a drop of 43.8% from the May 31st total of 1,359,107 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 310,444 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ellington Credit

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EARN. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its stake in Ellington Credit by 122.4% during the 1st quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 6,038 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ellington Credit in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Ellington Credit in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in shares of Ellington Credit in the second quarter valued at approximately $83,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors purchased a new stake in Ellington Credit during the 4th quarter worth approximately $115,000. 20.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Ellington Credit from $6.00 to $5.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ellington Credit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $5.75.

Ellington Credit Price Performance

Shares of EARN stock traded down $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $4.38. 551,589 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 346,054. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.41 million, a P/E ratio of -4.21 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $4.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.90. Ellington Credit has a 52-week low of $4.27 and a 52-week high of $6.08.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 20th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $9.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.57 million.

Ellington Credit Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 21.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. Ellington Credit’s dividend payout ratio is -92.31%.

About Ellington Credit

Ellington Credit Income Fund (NYSE: EARN) is a closed-end management investment company that seeks to generate current income through a diversified portfolio of mortgage- and asset-backed securities. The fund primarily invests in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and asset-backed securities (ABS), with additional exposure to commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and related structured credit instruments. To enhance income and manage risk, the fund employs leverage and derivative strategies such as interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, allowing it to adjust duration and credit exposure dynamically.

The fund is externally managed and advised by Ellington Management Group, LLC, an established investment firm specializing in mortgage credit and structured products.