Cannell & Spears LLC Purchases 40,900 Shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA)

Cannell & Spears LLC increased its holdings in shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) by 243.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 57,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after buying an additional 40,900 shares during the period. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in MFA Financial were worth $588,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of MFA Financial by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,005,138 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $139,985,000 after acquiring an additional 111,331 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in MFA Financial by 11.0% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 5,085,927 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $51,824,000 after purchasing an additional 502,840 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in MFA Financial by 6.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,579,818 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $33,700,000 after purchasing an additional 151,321 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of MFA Financial by 0.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,407,455 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $30,629,000 after purchasing an additional 21,331 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of MFA Financial by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,895,670 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $19,317,000 after purchasing an additional 60,261 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on MFA. JMP Securities decreased their price target on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on MFA Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $14.00 target price on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered MFA Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.70.

MFA Financial Price Performance

MFA Financial stock opened at $10.37 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a PE ratio of 12.80 and a beta of 2.18. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $10.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.12. MFA Financial, Inc. has a one year low of $9.36 and a one year high of $13.45.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.02). MFA Financial had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 16.47%. The company had revenue of $50.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.06 million. Sell-side analysts expect that MFA Financial, Inc. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MFA Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from MFA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. MFA Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 177.78%.

MFA Financial 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.