Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY)

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY) by 3.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 106,443 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 4,328 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Annaly Capital Management were worth $2,029,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NLY. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Annaly Capital Management during the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,244,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 159.7% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,118,940 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $118,524,000 after purchasing an additional 3,762,652 shares during the period. Algebris UK Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Annaly Capital Management by 195.9% during the 1st quarter. Algebris UK Ltd now owns 4,034,821 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $87,532,000 after buying an additional 2,671,236 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Annaly Capital Management by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,300,019 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $954,941,000 after buying an additional 1,619,729 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in Annaly Capital Management by 298.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,256,864 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $24,345,000 after buying an additional 941,126 shares in the last quarter. 51.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Annaly Capital Management Stock Performance

Shares of NLY opened at $20.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.45 billion, a PE ratio of -21.53 and a beta of 1.52. The company’s fifty day moving average is $20.13 and its 200 day moving average is $19.69. Annaly Capital Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $14.52 and a fifty-two week high of $21.11.

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.02. Annaly Capital Management had a negative net margin of 12.02% and a positive return on equity of 15.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $318.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Annaly Capital Management, Inc. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Annaly Capital Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 12.45%. Annaly Capital Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -268.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO David L. Finkelstein sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.05, for a total transaction of $1,002,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 612,469 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,280,003.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Compass Point boosted their price objective on Annaly Capital Management from $22.00 to $23.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Annaly Capital Management from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Annaly Capital Management from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $23.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott assumed coverage on shares of Annaly Capital Management in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.38.

Annaly Capital Management Company Profile

Annaly Capital Management, Inc, a diversified capital manager, engages in mortgage finance. The company invests in agency mortgage-backed securities collateralized by residential mortgages; non-agency residential whole loans and securitized products within the residential and commercial markets; mortgage servicing rights; agency commercial mortgage-backed securities; to-be-announced forward contracts; residential mortgage loans; and agency or private label credit risk transfer securities.