MFA Financial, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.36 (NYSE:MFA)

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.36 per share by the real estate investment trust on Friday, January 30th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st.

MFA Financial has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.2%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 1 years. MFA Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 104.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments.

MFA Financial Trading Up 0.2%

MFA stock traded up $0.02 during trading on Friday, hitting $9.65. 158,905 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,322,219. The stock has a market cap of $986.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.36 and a beta of 1.61. MFA Financial has a one year low of $7.85 and a one year high of $11.08. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.48.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.30 by ($0.10). MFA Financial had a return on equity of 7.26% and a net margin of 17.51%.The firm had revenue of $101.03 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $57.40 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.37 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that MFA Financial will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on MFA shares. UBS Group decreased their price target on MFA Financial from $10.50 to $10.25 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of MFA Financial in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded MFA Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.05.

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.