ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

ARR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. B. Riley Financial decreased their target price on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from $18.00 to $14.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. JonesTrading lowered their target price on shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from $19.00 to $15.25 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.56.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of ARR stock opened at $12.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -421.83 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $14.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.63. ARMOUR Residential REIT has a twelve month low of $12.27 and a twelve month high of $19.31.

ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.71. The company had revenue of $121.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $119.84 million. ARMOUR Residential REIT had a negative net margin of 5.09% and a positive return on equity of 15.90%. As a group, research analysts predict that ARMOUR Residential REIT will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current year.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 22.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 16th. ARMOUR Residential REIT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -9,600.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman Daniel Staton sold 35,583 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.86, for a total transaction of $564,346.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in ARMOUR Residential REIT by 15.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,745,078 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $82,802,000 after purchasing an additional 619,020 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT in the 2nd quarter valued at $13,757,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 234.6% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 664,247 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $11,080,000 after purchasing an additional 465,733 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 543,935 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $9,073,000 after buying an additional 10,592 shares during the period. Finally, Ascentis Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of ARMOUR Residential REIT by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ascentis Wealth Management LLC now owns 395,000 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $6,892,750 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the period. 54.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ARMOUR Residential REIT Company Profile

ARMOUR Residential REIT, Inc is a real estate investment trust that invests primarily in residential mortgage-backed securities. Its portfolio generally consists of securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government-sponsored enterprises, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or by U.S. government agencies such as Ginnie Mae.

The company invests in a range of agency mortgage securities, including fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgage pass-through securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, specified pools and to-be-announced securities.