MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $12.00.

Separately, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $12.50 price target on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Thursday, April 18th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MFA Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MFA. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC now owns 9,904 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 2,164 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 18,227 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,456 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 52.1% during the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 110,858 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $1,065,000 after purchasing an additional 37,954 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 492,749 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,735,000 after purchasing an additional 8,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of MFA Financial by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 19,905 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 3,317 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.28% of the company’s stock.

MFA Financial Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of MFA opened at $10.69 on Thursday. MFA Financial has a 12-month low of $8.41 and a 12-month high of $11.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $10.75. The stock has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a PE ratio of 26.73 and a beta of 2.10.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.12. MFA Financial had a return on equity of 9.44% and a net margin of 13.24%. The business had revenue of $169.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.75 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that MFA Financial will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

MFA Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.10%. MFA Financial’s payout ratio is 350.00%.

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.