Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) Short Interest Update

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 445,000 shares, an increase of 79.1% from the September 15th total of 248,400 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 417,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ellington Credit

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Ellington Credit in the 4th quarter valued at about $217,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its position in Ellington Credit by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 34,843 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 5,337 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ellington Credit by 18.1% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 12,426 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 1,903 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Ellington Credit by 78.5% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 642,419 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,465,000 after buying an additional 282,600 shares during the period. 20.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ellington Credit Price Performance

Ellington Credit stock opened at $6.74 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $6.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.93. Ellington Credit has a twelve month low of $5.09 and a twelve month high of $7.26. The company has a market cap of $138.00 million, a PE ratio of 23.24 and a beta of 1.87.

Ellington Credit (NYSE:EARN) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ellington Credit will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ellington Credit Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 31st. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 14.24%. Ellington Credit’s dividend payout ratio is presently 331.03%.

About Ellington Credit

Ellington Credit Company, a real estate investment trust, acquires, invests in, and manages residential mortgage-and real estate-related assets. It acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), including agency pools and agency collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs); and non-agency RMBS, such as non-agency CMOs, such as investment grade and non-investment grade.