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

MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 6th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.36 per share by the real estate investment trust on Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a 2.9% increase from MFA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35.

MFA Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 206.1% annually over the last three years. MFA Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 94.1% indicating that its dividend is currently covered by earnings, but may not be in the future if the company’s earnings fall.

MFA Financial Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:MFA opened at $10.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.07 and a beta of 2.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.17. MFA Financial has a twelve month low of $9.36 and a twelve month high of $13.45.

MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.38 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $50.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.06 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that MFA Financial will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MFA. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of MFA Financial in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $14.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of MFA Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of MFA Financial from $13.50 to $12.50 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.70.

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.