Two Harbors Investment Corp. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 (NYSE:TWO)

Two Harbors Investment Corp. (NYSE:TWO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the real estate investment trust on Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 13.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th.

Two Harbors Investment has raised its dividend payment by an average of 38.2% per year over the last three years. Two Harbors Investment has a payout ratio of 108.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments.

Two Harbors Investment Price Performance

TWO stock opened at $13.27 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.61. Two Harbors Investment has a 52-week low of $10.84 and a 52-week high of $14.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.29 and a beta of 1.86.

Two Harbors Investment (NYSE:TWO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.07). Two Harbors Investment had a return on equity of 6.52% and a net margin of 66.24%. Equities research analysts forecast that Two Harbors Investment will post 0.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Two Harbors Investment

In other Two Harbors Investment news, CIO Nicholas Letica sold 3,956 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.21, for a total transaction of $44,346.76. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 180,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,025,781.52. This trade represents a 2.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Rebecca B. Sandberg sold 5,025 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.21, for a total value of $56,330.25. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 156,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,750,587.23. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,136 shares of company stock worth $377,154. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on TWO. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $14.00 price target on shares of Two Harbors Investment in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Two Harbors Investment from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Two Harbors Investment from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Two Harbors Investment from $11.00 to $12.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Two Harbors Investment currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.96.

About Two Harbors Investment

Two Harbors Investment Corp. invests in, finances, and manages mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), and other financial assets through RoundPoint in the United States. The company target assets include agency RMBS collateralized by fixed rate mortgage loans, adjustable rate mortgage loans, hybrid mortgage loans, or derivatives; and other assets, such as financial and mortgage-related assets, including non-agency securities and non-hedging transactions.