MFA Financial, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.35 (NYSE:MFA)

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 7th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of 0.35 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th.

MFA Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 2.5% annually over the last three years. MFA Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 93.3% meaning its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings decline. Equities analysts expect MFA Financial to earn $1.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 93.3%.

MFA Financial Price Performance

NYSE:MFA opened at $11.58 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.63. MFA Financial has a one year low of $8.41 and a one year high of $11.90. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 28.94 and a beta of 2.11.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $169.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.75 million. MFA Financial had a net margin of 13.24% and a return on equity of 9.44%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.46 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that MFA Financial will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of MFA Financial

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MFA. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in MFA Financial by 10.2% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 13,313 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 1,232 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in MFA Financial by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,525 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,794 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in MFA Financial by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 18,462 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $182,000 after purchasing an additional 2,113 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in MFA Financial by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 167,483 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,609,000 after purchasing an additional 2,246 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in MFA Financial by 77.2% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 5,272 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 2,297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MFA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of MFA Financial in a research report on Wednesday, December 6th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $12.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of MFA Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $11.25 to $12.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.00.

MFA Financial Company 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.